


Wait for it

by TrashyAzeoHane



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: And a lot of plants!, And he is in denial, Angst, Crushes, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hogwart!AU, Kissing, M/M, Magic, Making Out, Max Nikki and Neil are sixth years, Max has a crush on David, Max is an adult since part II, Maxvid - Freeform, Slow Burn, Swearing, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-05-31 07:55:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 50,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15115043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashyAzeoHane/pseuds/TrashyAzeoHane
Summary: Max got three months of detention. And maybe it wouldn't be that bad, if he didn't have to help the most annoying, positive and happiest teacher in the whole school. Who also happened to be Max's... crush. This wasn't going to be easy.(David is a ball of sunshine, Max can’t deal with his feelings, Nikki and Neil have doubtful methods of helping and Daniel really hates Max. Oh, and a little bit of magic is there too.)





	1. I

__

_“Love doesn't discriminate_

_Between the sinners_

_And the saints_

_It takes and it takes and it takes (…)”_

_– Lin-Manuel Miranda_

**ﾟ ｡ ･ * . ☆ ━  I  ━ ☆ . * ･ ｡ ﾟ**

Max must have misheard that. He had to. There had to be something wrong with his ears – to be honest there was a faint ringing sound echoing at the back of his skull which didn’t exactly want to quiet down yet. Was he in such bad shape that he was starting to hear things?

“Pardon?” He murmured, blinking and staring with bewilderment at the woman sitting behind the giant mahogany desk. “I must have heard you wrong.”

Because no, there was no way that she actually had said –

Gwen sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“You heard me correctly Max. Three months of detention.” She stated and exhaled slowly through her barely parted lips.

“But why?!” Max asked, maybe too loud for comfort at this late hour, but he didn’t care. Everyone else inside the castle was sleeping soundly in their beds – well, of course almost everyone – a good few floors away. There was no way he could wake someone up.

The hand fell down from the woman’s face as she looked at him skeptically – with one eyebrow raised high onto her creamed forehead. Or at least Max assumed it was some kind of cream… or the residues of some mask the woman had put on her face in hope of calming down during the evening.

Apparently a few students had some different plans for her – and Max was unfortunately one of those students. So here she was, back in her office, still wearing a sleeping robe and giving Max the detention. Three months of detention!

“Why detention or why three months?” Gwen asked, crossing her hands on her chest and tapping one finger on the arm. “Because if you’re asking about the first one then I’m sure you already know the answer.”

Max bit his bottom lip harshly and then hissed as he felt the cut he had there open. With the wrist of his left hand he brushed it, hoping to get rid of these few new droplets of blood appearing there.

The Transfiguration teacher grabbed the wand from behind the belt of her fluffy robe and swished it. The lonely roll of parchment laying on the desk swirled and turned into a tissue, which then floated to Max.

He grabbed it, mumbled a quick thanks under his breath and pushed it to his mouth to stop the bleeding.

“I was asking about the second thing.” He murmured after a few seconds, moving the tissue away. Nope, there still was blood. Quite a lot of it. And he had just left the Hospital Wing. He wasn’t keen on going back there so quickly.

“Well… I talked with Daniel and we both decided that you are old enough to not act on impulses.” The woman said, tilting her head. “Especially if those impulses end in a destroyed corridor to the Clock Tower.”

Max cast his gaze away, staring at the closed door to Gwen’s office.

“Why isn’t crazy Da… Mister Daniel giving me detention?” He inquired instead, when the sudden empty space between them was becoming quite too much, weighing his bones and muscles down.

Damn, he was tired. Exhausted even. His eyelids were dropping down and the only thing he dreamed about now was a bed and a few hours of peaceful sleep.

“He is currently taking care of the mess you all have made.”

Oh, Max could already feel the hell he’ll be going through during the next Potion classes. Great, fucking fantastic. Where could he sign himself for a week stay at the Hospital Wing?

The woman eyed him curiously for a few seconds – maybe it was even a full minute, Max wasn’t sure. At this point he just wanted to go to sleep and deal with the thought that he just received detention for three months later on.

Life was fucking perfect. This was what he was getting for –

No, it didn’t matter right now.

(He wouldn’t change a thing in the end.)

Max moved the tissue away and then licked his lips hesitantly, checking if there were still a few droplets left. He could sense the cut, but it looked like it stopped bleeding. For now.

“I understand.” He finally said. “So when will I be starting the detention?”

Max doubted that the woman would want the tissue back, so he put it inside his pocket. It may come in handy later.

“Next Tuesday.” Gwen said with a small, tired smile tugging on her lips.

Oh, so he still had a week of freedom. Or maybe they gave him a small vacation to heal. Or maybe for the others to heal – because, to be honest, Max was the least injured one. It didn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell, but it could be worse.

(And some small part of Max was kinda proud of that. He only hoped that Nikki would be okay too as she had to stay in the Hospital Wing for the night.)

Okay, he can live through three months of detention. Actually once he had had it worse – because he had gotten five months of detention! That had been two years ago, back when he was a fourth year. He had just pissed off the wrong person – _cough!_ his own Head of the Slytherin House – and the price had to be paid.

Cleaning cauldrons will probably be a never ending part of his nightmares till the day of his death.

Max shuddered, but then moved his gaze back at the woman. Plus it was Gwen he was talking about. She was nothing like Daniel! She wouldn’t comment on every little thing he would do even a bit wrong. She wouldn’t pierce him with a cold stare. She wouldn’t treat him like a piece of shit.

So maybe it won’t be that bad.

“So what will we be doing then?” He asked.

Gwen blinked and then chuckled under her nose.

“Oh no, you got it wrong. You won’t be helping me during your detention…” She stated, a few cackles escaping her lips at the end.

What?

“Then who?” Max asked.

Please not crazy Daniel, please not crazy Daniel, please not crazy Daniel, please not –

“David. He needs a helping hand around his greenhouses.”

On the second thought… Crazy Daniel sounded fine.

* * *

 

“It’s not so bad.” Neil murmured from somewhere above Max’s head.

He only groaned in response, embracing the cold table with his warm face. He didn’t want to see the world, he was fine there, not staring at the passing students. Plus the chilly sensation which was seeping into his skin was making the scratches, still visible there, less painful.

Plus there was a more prominent and important reason. A very, very important reason. The teachers’ table full of… well, teachers.

Max didn’t want to even glance at them for a millisecond.

“Neil, it’s a disaster.”

There was an exasperated sigh coming from above him, followed by a sound of something being stabbed. Probably the eggs Neil had been eating for breakfast.

Max mustered one toast into himself and that was all. Usually he was an animal, tearing through rolls and stealing lonely pieces of ham from other people’s plates. But not today… Today his stomach was twisting, curling and twitching nervously inside his body.

And it was all because of _him_.

“I actually thought you would be kinda happy… about that turn of events.”

“No, Neil, this is terrible.” Max said, maybe too loud, as he lifted his face from the table. His one hand moved to comb through his messy black strands. And it was totally an accident that it was the hand that also helped him not see the teachers’ table. “I’d prefer to clean fucking cauldrons for fucking crazy Daniel for three months than have detention with David.”

Neil looked kinda surprised, but also amused by his outburst. Yeah, that was amusement tugging on the corners of his lips and making Max want to slap that fucking smirk off.

“Whatever you say, Max.” Neil finally mused, closing his eyes with shoulders dropping in defeat. “But if you really don’t want to go to _David_ for detention I always have a few potions I want to test.”

“Sign me the fuck up.”

“You may die.”

“Don’t care.”

* * *

 

Max, unfortunately, didn’t die after trying Neil’s potions. One turned his skin green, the other one made him belch colorful bubbles and others, well… had other weird side effects. But not one of them killed him.

The fact also kinda surprised Neil, as he stared at green Max with bubbles coming out of his mouth, but still very much alive.

“I must have messed up the amount of Bloodroot petals.”

“No shit.”

Nikki, who finally returned from the Hospital Wing, had the best day of her life. After a few hours and at least dozen potions she was still laughing like a madman. Her laughing spree started after Max had explained to her his foolproof plan of dying before he would even get near David and she was still doing it after the last potion had been drunk.

Max preferred her laughing over looking like hell – but the chuckles were interrupted a few times by the Gryffindor grabbing her ribs and hissing in pain.

“You okay?” Max asked, glancing at himself in the broken, rusty window, trying to sound as disinterested as he could.

“Yeah… just…” She wheezed and neither he nor Neil were sure if that was because she was still in pain or due to that everlasting smile on her lips thanks to Max’s problem. “Broken ribs heal slowly, even with magic.”

Neil nodded, approving of this statement.

But Max couldn’t parade green around the school for the rest of his life, so he went to the Hospital Wing. The nurse eyed him suspiciously, but only sighed and got to work, mixing different potions to help him get his normal skin color back.

* * *

 

Okay, the next plan was maybe a little less ideal, however it was good nonetheless.

Nikki simply proposed jumping from a high place and hoping that this would end it all.

Neil quickly shot that idea down.

“You don’t need to actually die. We just need to do something that make you unable… to attend detention.” The Ravenclaw explained, as the both of them sent him quite surprised stares.

Well, Neil was kinda right. And all this planning was for naught. Well, maybe they could still use it in the future.

“You’re no fun, Neil. I’m supporting Max!” Nikki pipped from next to Max.

“I’m trying to save him!”

“You gave him at least a dozen dubious potions yesterday!”

Neil was already opening his mouth to answer her, but found no good and intelligent reply in his mind, so he shut it and didn’t brush this topic anymore.

* * *

 

Of course, coming up with a plan that didn’t involve Max dying was harder than they thought.

First Nikki and Neil painted some red and pinkish spots on Max’s skin – so he would look like he was ill – and then sent him to the Hospital Wing. The nurse ran around him, fuming and cursing while searching in books as big as crazy Daniel’s ego for spells that could heal Max’s suspicious rash.

Maybe the stupidest plans were the best.

The nurse was just about to make him stay the night (or a few more) over, in a not so comfy bed, but then she brushed his cheek and smeared the paint residing there.

Fuck.

In the end it didn’t work.

* * *

 

After that they had searched through the whole school for a specific spider.

Neil had read somewhere that Brown Recluses had quite a venomous bite and only the St. Mungo’s hospital had the antidote for it.

And they found many, many spiders – mostly typical ones like a Redback Spider, Cellar Spiders and even a few Hobo Spiders – but not the one they were looking for.

But the nurse almost had believed his lie yesterday, so maybe today would be no exception either.

So Nikki happily found and grabbed a lonely, poor Giant House Spider and tried to help Max get bitten by it.

(Forcing a spider to bite someone was more difficult than it looked, Max concluded after a few minutes of struggling.)

After that came a few spells on his skin to change the color of it, few runs from one side of the corridor to the other to sweat, and Max was ready to return to the Hospital Wing.

To say that the nurse was surprised and not happy would be an understatement. But when Max told her what had bit him (or what actually hadn’t bit him), she quickly turned pale as a marble. Her hands fidgeted and then she dropped a bottle filled with purple potion onto the floor.

Uh-oh?

She laid him down on the bed and then started to run around the room, searching for correct potions, ingredients and books with spells. Quickly his hand was submerged in a bowl filled with something that weirdly resembled a goop in sensation, but both freezing cold and burning hot in turns. Not to mention it smelled terrible.  
The nurse ran around him, casting spells that did nothing. Because there was nothing to cure, beside a typical bite from a typical, not really harmful, spider.

The nurse lifted her head at him with a frown storming through her eyes and forehead. Her hand gripped his wrist tighter.

“I’m sorry, but I think we need to amputate it.”

What the fuck?

“What?”

“I don’t think I have enough potions and ingredients to fight the venom in your blood, so we need to cut it off before it will spread further.” The woman stated, holding Max’s wrist with one hand and her wand in the other.

She made a swish movement with her right palm and a red aura, which appeared near her shoulder, floated through her hand to the wand and then to Max’s shoulder –

“No, no, no, no, no, stop! It didn’t bite me!”

To say that Max shouldn’t come even close to the Hospital Wing after that would be an understatement in this situation.

* * *

 

In the end, nothing they did worked. Or at least not in the way Max wanted it to work.

(Nikki even proposed destroying something to give Max even worse detention, but he was afraid that Gwen would magically turn those three months into five or more)

So there was one last thing he could do.

“Are you sure?” Neil asked, leaning over the edge of the tower to stare down at the ground many, many feet below them.

The wind swished past them, ruffling their robes and hair. It was kinda chilly so high up, but Nikki looked like she didn’t even care as she swung her legs back and forth, looking down with pure childish curiosity beaming from her eyes.

“Yes.” Max said, licking his almost healed lips and glancing down. This height should really damage him. Or even kill.

He didn’t want to die here, but the sweet, delicious embrace of death would probably still be better than dealing with David for three months.

“I will visit you in St. Mungo.” Nikki chirped, looking up at Max as he moved to the edge.

“Thanks. I… appreciate it.”

Max took a deep breath, feeling the chilly air sneaking through his lungs to his bones and muscles, freezing them for a few seconds. No, he had to do it. There was no turning back.

His heart hammered, beated, drummed loudly in his ears, making all the other sounds quiet down and the height between him and the ground so, so large. The people below looked like ants, moving happily from one corner of the grounds to the other.

Max closed his eyes.

“I really don’t like it, Max.”

He exhaled slowly though his lips and then glanced at Neil.

“You know what Muggles say?”

“What?”

“Yolo!” And with that one word leaving his chapped lips, Max leaped to his freedom.

Well, kinda funny thing. He wasn’t even sure what this word meant – he heard it around the school, screamed loudly, especially during Potions when some ingredients were added. It was mostly followed by an explosion or the loud booming voice of the teacher, angrily marching through the smoke. It definitely had to mean something cool. Otherwise people wouldn’t say it so often.

And he would die with this one last word leaving his lips.

Well, Max would die, if he actually started falling down. But nothing like that happened. He expected the ground to get closer and closer to him, with the wind swishing loudly in his ear. He expected to feel the adrenaline, to sense the blood rushing through his heart. He almost wanted to sense the overbearing dread, because in just a few seconds he would welcome the soil with a high five.

But nothing like this happened. Max jumped and then… froze in the air.

What the fuck?

“What is happening here!?”

Goddammit.

Max wanted to turn around, but he couldn’t move. His muscles didn’t want to twitch even as he floated in the air, immobilized by a heavy force swirling around his body.

Gladly (or not) soon he was brought back to the tower, where Neil stood with an embarrassed façade. Nikki just looked lost.

And in front of Max stood a very, very pissed Gwen.

“Max, what the hell were you thinking? You could have killed yourself. Or at least hurt yourself pretty badly!” The woman screamed with her foot tapping an uneven rhythm on the cold, stony floor.

The violet coat rattled loudly under the passing wind.

Max weighed his options in his mind quickly and decided to stay quiet. Or at least tried. It wasn’t his fault that Nikki usually did something before thinking.

“Oh Max was just trying to escape detention with Mister David.”

If he was a basilisk, Nikki would drop dead in this very moment. But unfortunately Max was only a human, so his deadly glare did nothing, only made the girl chuckle a little under her nose.

Gwen looked between her and him and then sighed heavily with her shoulders dropping down significantly. The hand which wasn’t wielding a wand moved to her face, so she could pinch the bridge of her nose.

“Max, I can’t even…” Then she took a deep, calming breath and looked up at the sky. It took her a few seconds to let out the hot air outside and glance back at Max. “Max, you’re helping David for three months and you better behave yourself or three months will turn into half a year.”

Oh no.

“Did I make myself clear?” Gwen raised one eyebrow and then crossed her arms.

“Yes.”

“Good. Now return to the castle and I don’t even want to see you outside today.”

The trio shuffled slowly past Gwen into the castle. Max’s shoulders were hunched, but Nikki next to him looked like she had the time of her life. Neil on the other side… less so.

(It was him who had probably called Gwen… Max wanted to be mad at him, but couldn’t find the anger inside of him right now.)

They were just about to walk down the dark, curly stairs, when the Transfiguration teacher behind him spoke:

“And hey, Max…” When he turned his face to her, Gwen’s mouth stretched into an evil smirk. “Detention starts tomorrow at five.”

* * *

 

Max stopped in front of the glassy, dirty window. He raised his hand – because maybe he should knock – but then moved it down. No, that was stupid. He never had knocked here, so why should he start now?

He checked the time. He was late. Not by much, but around ten minutes or so. Would the teacher be mad if he was late? Crazy Daniel would probably prolong his detention, maybe take away points from his own House (Max had a feeling the man kinda hated him, and the feeling was mutual, asshole). But David wasn’t like Daniel. Or like they were totally opposite.

David would probably smile that stupid, cheerful grin of his and not even mention it, glad that the student could simply make it.

Well, only one way to find out actually.

Max grabbed the handle and pushed it down, feeling his heart leaping painfully high into his throat. It was swirling and twirling constantly today, beating like crazy about the simple idea of detention. It was thumping and drumming so loudly and joyfully that Max was sure everyone around him could hear it.

(Even though Neil had said that he hadn’t been hearing a thing.)

The door opened with a sad squeak, making way for Max to walk inside the greenhouse.

And the first thing Max did was kick a bucket holding some tree. Great Max. But it wasn’t his fault. Neither his legs nor arms wanted to move properly today, sweating profusely like crazy and almost making him slip.

Max cursed under his nose, when the sound of his feet hitting the metal woke up some plant on the left which started to wiggle. What the fuck?

This was exactly why he hated this place. Everything was so… so alive. You’d want to touch that beautiful flower on the right, but it was probably poisonous and will kill you slowly in three years. That row of small cacti looked lovely? Wrong! One pinch of their needle will make you vomit through the whole night! Oh, were those golden flowers safe to smell and admire their beauty? Guess aga – wait, they were just dandelions. Never mind.

(Why the fuck did David have, among all of those amazing plants, fricking dandelions?)

Max moved slowly through rows of different, colorful plants, bending and sometimes jumping over roots. He could swear once he saw some vine reaching out to him, but he quickly moved from its path. It took him at least four or so minutes before he reached another door, from behind which he could hear low hums.

He reached and knocked on the glass door. Nothing happened. The sweet tone was still seeping from under it like a lullaby. So Max knocked once again, louder. Still… still nothing.

Okay, so going in it was.

Max pushed the handle and then opened the door, peeking inside first before fully going in.

As expected the Herbology teacher was inside the room, softly humming a delicate tune under his nose as he moved through the warm room with a giant watering can in both of his hands. He stopped to bend down and water one white flower and then he was again on his journey to help other plants and trees gathered inside this room. The man swirled around the flowerpots with ease, even though from his place near the door Max could see that his eyes were mostly closed. Another pour of water here, a slight step to the side to not crash into an Asphodel there, then a small twirl to maneuver around Bouncing Bulb, only to stop under a sink.

Max was just about to maybe shout, to show that he was here – even though it was hard to do so through his closing down throat – when he noticed a black something sticking out from the teacher’s ears.

Oh wait. Nikki once had showed Max something similar. A device to play music! But how was it called? MV… no, not that… MP… MP something something.

That was why David couldn’t hear him.

So yeah, clearing throat and shouting probably wouldn’t help. Will Max actually have to move closer to the teacher and maybe even touch him?

He wasn’t sure if his body could manage to do so. Especially his heart, which was hammering like crazy – painfully echoing in his skull. Was he getting a heart attack? Probably!

But no, he had to do it, otherwise Gwen would probably give him more detention. More detention with David of all people.

So he somehow, magically probably, mustered his legs to move closer to the man, who was still singing like a doofus under his nose while filling up the water can. Max’s hand floated in the air for a few more seconds than necessary, before it landed on the teacher’s shoulder.

To say that Max kinda frightened the red haired man would be an understatement. Especially as the man yelped, jumped and then turned around with one black something falling out of his ear.

“Max! You scared me!” Green, vivid eyes found his own and Max tried really, really hard not to look away immediately.

“I knocked.” He murmured, clenching his fists.

David looked behind him at the opened door and then his mouth formed that small stupid ‘o’ when he was noticing something obvious.

“Oh, sorry Max. I was listening to some tunes while working.” The man stated, reaching to his ears to unplug the other black thing and put it into his pocket.

Max wasn’t sure what to do, so he nodded.

“G… Miss Gwen sent me here for my detention?”

Another blink of lush eyes, another small ‘o’ formed by pink lips and then David was nodding vigorously.

“Oh yeah, yeah, I remember.” But something in the way he said that made Max think that the man didn’t really remember that. “Come, come. Do you have some gloves?”

“Erm…” Well, of course not.

David passed him and moved to the door from which Max entered and walked through it.

“Well, don’t worry. I’ll lend you some of mine.”

Max followed the teacher through the first greenhouse to a small storage room on the other side. All this time Max was a few feet away – far enough so that he wasn’t feeling like fainting, but close enough that it was acceptable. David didn’t seem to notice it, humming some tune under his nose all the way.

David gave him old gloves – they were frayed in too many places to count, sewn a few times and smelling like soil. Max immediately hated them. But well, he liked his fingers and he knew for a fact that some plants here were dangerous, so he put them on.

“So what are we doing today?” Max asked, while David put on his own gloves.

The man turned and sent him the brightest grin of all times – that made Max blind for a second – and answered:

“We’re going to replant some plants!”

Easy enough.

* * *

 

Apparently it wasn’t as easy as it had seemed at first, because David didn’t exactly tell Max that they were replanting Spiky Bushes.

So yeah, the process wasn’t so nice.

It took Max at least half an hour to get one bush from a pot without being punctured by the yellow spikes. It took him another half an hour to fill another pot with special soil and then took him another one to put the bush back inside (while only being grazed once). And like that, almost half of his detention time flew by with Max only managing to do one thing!

(It wasn’t like he tried to be sufficient, it just kinda… pissed him off.)

And David, that fucking ado– irritating teacher, during this time managed to replant three bushes, all this time smiling like crazy and praising Max’s every move.

“Oh Max, you did great!” David said, approaching him when Max was able to put one plant away. “Look, it’s so happy in its new home!”

Max wasn’t sure if Spiky Bushes could exactly be happy – like do they even feel any kind of emotion?

But when David’s gloved hands landed on it, petting the plant softly, the spikes got significantly smaller.

Huh, maybe they do have emotions.

“Why do we have to do it anyway?” Max asked, moving to another pot in the line and dragging it closer to the bag with soil.

“Oh, Spiky Bushes get their vitamins from the Sun. But in the winter there isn’t enough sunlight for them to grow properly, so I replant them into soil which has a surplus of those vitamins.”

“Seems reasonable enough.”

“It sure is!”

Max’s eyebrow twitched hearing the high pitched, cheerful voice. He didn’t comment on it. He preferred to return back to work and forget that David was near him.

* * *

 

Apparently he had to visit David three times a week – every Tuesday, Thursday and – damn – Saturday. He was glad that winter was coming, so it meant no Quidditch practices. But it still wasn’t a very nice thought that immediately popped into Max’s mind first thing in the Saturday morning.

(The worst was the fact that some horrible part of Max already wanted to go there and he was still in his boxers!)

He spent the time before detention by nudging Neil to do Max’s homework for him. The teen, of course, didn’t agree, but helped him write an essay for Transfiguration. At least it was one thing off Max’s mind. Nikki, in this time, occupied the chair next to them in the library and snored loudly.

And (not) soon enough it was afternoon and Neil and Nikki were bidding him farewell. While Neil looked kinda well… like usual, Nikki’s mouth was stretched in that ever knowing grin.

“Have fun, Max.”

“It’s detention. It isn’t supposed to be fun.” Max grumbled.

“I know, but you’re spending it with… David.” She tilted her head and looked at him and _oh!_ Max kinda wanted to kill her.

(Fuck the fact that he had helped her almost two weeks ago.)

“And this is the worst part of the detention.” Max stated.

“Yeah, sure, tell yourself that.”

Yeah, choking her now sounded delightful.

But he was already four minutes late and, even though David wasn’t crazy Daniel, he still could give him more detention.

(Knowing David he probably wouldn’t even notice Max being late. But it wasn’t like Max wanted to go there…)

Also this time Max went into the greenhouse without knocking, because the Herbology teacher never heard him, so why should he do it anymore? And also this time David wasn’t in the main part of the building.

Max maneuvered, stepped, twirled and jumped around, once again forgetting about the Venomous Tentacula, and then he was in front of the door directing him further into the greenhouse.

This time it was slightly ajar, but Max couldn’t hear any tapping or hums coming from inside. Weird, but he still pushed the door slowly and peeked inside.

He would have lied if he said that he didn’t find David, because it was the first thing he noticed after entering.

The teacher was sitting on a chair with his hands curled on the table and face hidden in them.

“Mister David?” Max asked, entering slowly, letting the door squeak softly.

No response.

Max looked around and then slowly moved forward, a few steps at a time. His fingers twitched, not really sure what they should do. Move? Should he move them?

Max was close enough that if he lifted his hand, he would touch the redhead’s shoulder. And he wanted to, his brain was sending tons and tons of impulses to his palm, but Max held strongly.

No, he can’t do it. But well –

“David?” Max repeated himself, internally biting his tongue at the slip.

But also this time the man didn’t move, not counting the shoulders moving rhythmically up and down.

He was asleep.

Max could totally just sit around and wait till the time of detention would be over and then explain to David that he had been there on time. Knowing the gullible teacher he would probably believe him, especially as it was kinda true.

So why was Max’s hand moving without his consent? Why was it floating in the air, inching closer and closer to the mop of red hair? Why couldn’t he stop?

(Maybe because he didn’t want to.)

And there was a brief stillness – where he heard the soft rustles of plants, where he heard a sprinkler turning on somewhere in the background, where he could hear a lone bird flying above the greenhouse’s roof, where his heart beat so loud inside his ribcage that he was sure everyone could hear it.

A symphony, a painful symphony drumming inside his ribcage and temples.

His fingers twitched, unsure, hesitant, whether they should or should not touch the strands, even when they were so, so close.

Max swallowed hard, feeling the sudden, intense, submerging –

Max’s palm landed on David’s shoulder.

“Mister David?” He repeated himself, shaking the man.

The teacher stirred and slowly lifted his head from the confinement of his hands. For a few seconds he stared forward, at nothing and everything in the same time, and then blinked slowly, getting rid of the last dusty particles of sleep still being there on his eyelashes.

Max’s hand was still on the man’s shoulder when he turned around.

“Oh Max! I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep accidentally. I’m so so sorry.” David suddenly stood up from the chair, tipping it backwards and almost making it crash down.

That would have happened, if Max didn’t move to catch it, breaking the connection.

“It’s okay.” He said, putting the chair back, looking back at David and noticing probably for the first time that he had big ashy bags under his eyes. Well, no, scratch that. Max had noticed them, but now, when he was finally able to stand close, he could see that they were painfully large.

There was this rumor going around that some students had seen the Herbology teacher walking around the school during the nights. But until now Max took it as a, well, rumor. But maybe there was a grain of truth in shushed sentences whispered from ear to ear.

David smiled at him a little bit sheepishly, a little bit unsure, before he finally cleared his throat and moved past Max.

“O-okay, we should get back to work!”

And with that David went outside.

Max turned on his heel, not before stealing one last glance at his teacher’s desk. Oh, he had fallen asleep grading some first years’ essays. Heh, not surprising then.

* * *

 

So like that two weeks passed. And all this time Max was replanting the Spiky Bushes. When he had more or less found a kind of proper technique it wasn’t so hard and he was doing it way faster now.

(There was even a short moment when he almost enjoyed it, but his brain quickly killed that thought, tore it apart and buried it deep down.)

So when one day Max walked into a greenhouse and found David actually already in the main part of it and saying:

“Today you’ll be doing something different”

It kinda took him by surprise.

“Okay…” Max mumbled and moved closer to David, but not too close to not accidentally smell his kinda nicely smelling –

(No, no, no!)

– shampoo and a soft hint of soil that seemed to always trail behind the teacher. “So what will we be doing today?”

“Do you remember Asphodels?” David asked, handing him the gloves.

Max took them and put them on.

“Ehh… kinda.” Not really.

But David didn’t comment on that as he moved further into the greenhouse.

“The root of an Asphodel is used in many potions. I’m sure you used it a lot too or at least Daniel told you about it.”

If Max had actually paid attention during Potions, that was. But he unfortunately didn’t do it enough to know some roots. It wasn’t that Max was bad at Potions, on the contrary, he was pretty good at it – and maybe this fact irritated crazy Daniel even more. Because he simply couldn’t pinpoint mistakes in Max’s potions.

“Yeah, it’s ringing a bell somewhere.” Still not really.

But David grinned at him with that smile with the power of a thousand suns and, God, Max almost got blinded by the sheer power of it.

“Good! I noticed a few days ago that some leaves were ill. I already gave them a specific healing potion, but we still need to get rid of the old ones, so the new ones can grow.”

Sounded easy enough. Getting rid of a few leaves shouldn’t be that problematic, right?

Again, wrong. Max should really stop expecting his life and especially detention to be easy. Especially as he saw rows and rows of the plant in the next room.

Fuck his life!

* * *

 

Trying to find the infected leaves wasn’t the worst, really. The worst was the closure he sometimes had to get. Because damn, sometimes the leaf looked sick, but also not sick, so Max had to call David for inspection.

And David sometimes had to lean in pretty close to see. And in this process he had to move closer to Max and occasionally brush their shoulders together. And there were times where David was in front of him – with hairs tickling Max’s nose as he was bending down to look at the leaf.

And Max’s hand would always twitch, squirm, tense. It took a lot of Max’s inner strength to not raise his hand and just… do something with it. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he knew he wanted to do something with it.

(Plus from so up close he could see all the freckles adorning David’s skin)

At the end of the day Max’s back was killing him and whenever he straightened it, he could hear his vertebrae clicking into place. Plus he was tired, no, exhausted as hell from trying to control his heart, mind and the stupid, idiotic and terrible urges appearing whenever David was near him.

Like today he could almost count every eyelash David had!

During the evening, when Max was walking through Slytherin common room, every younger year moved out of his way and the rest whispered between each other. Max didn’t care about them or about anything they were talking about. Though he caught bits and pieces of their conversations.

“What the heck. Is he smiling?”

“Max smiling? You must be delusional. Oh shit, you’re right!”

“Yeah, scary.”

“We should run…”

Max turned to them and the duo, who had been talking about him, scattered away.

* * *

 

The November quickly turned into December with a white, fluffy layer of snow covering the ground one not so beautiful morning.

“Fucking stupid white fucking shit.” Max mumbled as he walked through the wet snow in the direction of the forest.

Nikki and Neil were just behind him, with Nikki cackling loudly like a madman and Neil hiding his mouth behind a thick, blue scarf, secured tightly around his neck.

“Why did it have to fall today? When we have to find those stupid cones for dumb Potions!?” Max groaned, kicking a pile of snow.

It didn’t give him the satisfaction he hoped it would give him. It only agitated him more actually.

“I mean, to be fair, we were supposed to start searching for them two weeks ago.” Neil mumbled under his breath.

“Well, I didn’t see you eagerly looking for them earlier!” Max snapped back, almost glaring at his friend, who only shrugged in return.

Max didn’t sleep well and was kinda pissed. Or very much pissed. So yeah, yelling at his friends maybe wasn’t justified, but it was expected by them.

They spent another hour and a half rummaging through the snow with bare, in Max’s and Nikki’s case, hands and searching for pine cones. Why during the whole year there were a lot of them around, but when you needed them suddenly the whole forest and field was empty?

But gladly, after too long time spent in the freezing cold world, they had enough to fulfill crazy Daniel’s wish.

With three bags full of pine cones, they started their mighty journey back to the castle for some needed warm dinner.

“Hey Max…” Nikki suddenly appeared next to him – for a brief moment Max was sure she even apparated there – and grinned from ear to ear. “… What are your plans for Christmas?”

Christmas? Oh yeah, it was in less than a month. Max totally forgot about it. Or it would be more accurate to say that he tried not to think about it that much. It wasn’t the whole idea of Christmas that he hated, but the things that came with it – coldness in his parents’ eyes as they sat at the enormous dining table, not uttering even a single word to each other.

“Eh… probably the same as every year.” Max shrugged, hanging the bags on his wrist so he could hide his frozen palms inside his pockets. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I’m going to my dad for Christmas and was curious if you want to go with me? Neil will also visit, right?” The girl turned to their tall friend, who only shrugged in reply – which indicated that he agreed.

Max glanced at the girl and then hung his head down.

He didn’t want to show it, but the idea – a simple question, a will to hang out with him – warmed him so much inside that he was afraid it was visible on his cheeks in form of a soft, kinda pinkish, maybe even red blush smeared over his cheeks. It sent shivers of excitement running down his spine and made his fingers twitch in anticipation, but then it all crashed down when reality gnawed on him.

“I’m sorry, Nik…” Max grumbled. “But my parents will probably send someone to drag me back if I say I’m not going back home, because I’m visiting a friend.”

Even though they barely talked, his parents always expected Max to come back home for holidays and breaks – so they all could wear fancy clothes and go to galas thrown by the Ministry of Magic, showing perfect smiles of the perfect family that they oh so much weren’t. Max hated it.

Nikki’s smiling mouth turned upside down at that information.

“Ugh, can’t you lie to them that you need to stay at school and then come over to me?”

“I tried.” Max quickly said. “During the second year. They asked the headmaster if that was true and then sent a butler to drag me back home.” In the end, it hadn’t been the best Christmas he had had in his entire life. Maybe it had even been one of the worst ones.

“Oh…” This time Nikki’s smile fully dropped down, not even leaving a trace of it being there in the first place. “Well at least… think about it.”

Max nodded at that, knowing very well that thinking wouldn’t help in this situation.

When they were near the main entrance, and Max was just about to grab the handle, the door burst open and the three of them almost crashed into a figure cladded in black exiting the castle. There was a hesitation in the air when four people suddenly tried to fumble around each other, until actually all off them stopped moving altogether and Max could peek at the Potions teacher, clearly agitated, looking at them.

“Good morning, sir.” Neil said, finding the calm voice inside himself to speak, even though both Max and Nikki were still kinda surprised.

The blond-haired teacher glanced at them and frowned.

“Good morning.” Daniel mumbled, barely parting his lips as he studied each and every one of them. Then the grimace turned into a creepy smile when he glanced down at their hands. “Oh I see you finally finished your homework.”

Max absentmindedly stepped forward, getting in front of his friends and staring daggers (beautiful, poisonous daggers) at the teacher, who straightened his back and glared back.

Oh, yeah, they clearly disliked each other.

It felt like eternities passed with the two of them staring at each other, before Neil decided to butt in.

“Where are you going in such a rush, Mister Daniel?” He asked, raising his eyebrow and pointing out the fact that had got lost in their small staring combat.

The teacher blinked and then moved his gaze at Neil with his neck cracking as he tilted his head.

“Oh, I was just going to the greenhouse.” He said, mouth stretching into a smile. “David asked me for some potions and I was going to deliver them.”

Max’s eye twitched and _oh!_ something in Daniel looking back at him told Max that the teacher had seen it.

Or worse… that he knew. That he knew all about Max’s heart, his secrets and hidden feelings and emotions.

(He hoped that Daniel could see and feel the hatred Max felt towards him.)

“So please excuse me.” Daniel chirped, then almost made a twirl around them and stomped through the fluffy snow, making new marks, to the greenhouse.

Max felt something inside of him burning and he wanted to run after Daniel to check, to see with his own eyes if what the teacher had said was true. However the soft voice of his friend brought him back to reality, tugging on his consciousness.

“Come on Max, let’s go.”

So they walked inside the castle.

* * *

 

It took two detentions before Max finally found the courage to ask:

“Did you order some potions from Mister Daniel?”

He had stopped cutting the ill leaves and now David had asked him to water the Aconites standing in the corner. David himself was dealing with the Fanged Geraniums, patting their leaves and singing softly to them as he plucked some unhealthy leaves and watered the soil beneath them.

(When Max had approached them earlier they had almost bit off his hand, but David knew how to approach them and made them act like sweet, loving puppies.)

David stopped humming and turned to Max, his hand brushing some spot on the plant’s head. Did they even have heads?

“Oh I did.” David said, grinning to him like the warm sun, even though the world was covered in a thick cover of snow and the star was hidden behind gray clouds. There was a beat of surprise levitating in the air, before another question followed. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Max said, even though he knew it was a lie. But David didn’t need to know that.

David tilted his head (the movement so similar, yet so different than whenever crazy Daniel did it) and then turned it back to the Geranium, which was nudging his hand to get him back to the petting part again.

“Daniel makes a lot of potions to help my plants live through the winter.” David added, like an afterthought or some explanation of sort.

“Can’t you make them on your own?”

“Eh…” Max glanced back to see David scratching the plant under its chin. What? “I was never good at Potions. Almost every mixture exploded in my face.”

Max snorted under his nose at that, trying to imagine young David – well, younger David – screeching with his face covered in soot and sleeves of his robe burning heavily. Well it wasn’t so impossible to believe actually.

“It’s true. I was horrible at them.” David said, giggling under his breath.

God, the sound, the sound made Max’s heart flutter painfully inside his chest.

“At least you weren’t hated by the teacher.” Max added, glancing back but quickly turning back to move the stream of water to another pot.

“Daniel doesn’t hate you.”

“Yeah, right.” Max prolonged the last word, bending down a little to move the watering can a little bit further back. “And he totally isn’t looking like he wants to kill me all the time.”

There was a beat of silence, a brief moment filled with nothingness, before David spoke.

“Daniel just… has this kind of face. It doesn’t mean he hates you though.”

“Lie to yourself then.” Max said, not being able to bite his tongue in time to maybe even think that this kind of tone was not proper while talking with the teacher.

But David only huffed in reply and there was a soft whisper leaving his mouth:

“I don’t understand why no one believes me.”

* * *

 

To be fair, Max had asked his parents if he had to return home for Christmas. And two days later he got a reply, written in a gold ink on a brand new parchment.

_We expect you home, Maxwell._

Nothing more, nothing less. So yeah, that was a giant ‘no’.

“And what did they say?’ Nikki asked, peeking from above the table at the paper in his hands.

Max passed her the letter and then occupied himself with eating his breakfast. It didn’t take long for Nikki to scan the letter, before a frown appeared on her face, wrinkling her forehead.

“They are a bunch of assholes.” Neil said, munching on a toast, next to Max. He probably already knew what they had written to him, even without reading. Max’s façade probably gave it out.

“Yeah…” Nikki mumbled and passed Max the parchment.

Max crumpled the letter and then took out his wand to cast a simple _Incendio_ on it. The parchment lit up, burning thoroughly with quite a big flame, maybe too big for comfort. It was probably Max’s anger which was causing this, but he didn’t mind.

He expected it, yet he was disappointed.

So he watched the paper burn with kind of weird satisfaction sparkling in his eyes. Nikki shouted excitedly on the other side of the table and Neil only shook his head, but with a grin on his lips too. Many, many other heads turned to them, especially as the parchment was heavily burning on the table now, popping loudly every few seconds and shooting small, black scraps in the air, which were still being consumed by the sizzling fire even in the air.

Well, the fun had to be cut loose by a voice speaking above them.

“Max, Neil, Nikki, what is the meaning of this!?”

Oh Max knew this voice, he knew it pretty well.

Max only tilted his head back to stare at a kinda pissed, but mostly confused look on David’s face. His hands were rested on his hips as his eyes jumped from every one of them, only to rest back again at Max. The intensity of his gaze made Max’s throat clench.

Fuck!

“Eh, we’re…” Nikki started, prolonging every word. “… practicing?”

Suave, Nikki, very suave!

David blinked and then looked back at the girl.

“Practicing?” He parroted, rising his eyebrow.

“Uhm yeah for…” Nikki glanced at her side.

“For Defence Against the Dark Arts!” Neil next to them spoke up, glancing up at their teacher. “We are… going over some spells today.”

“Uh totally!” Nikki added, grinning from ear to ear and staring at David.

Max was… really impressed. The lie came out pretty good.

“Right…” David said, eyeing them all once again, only to let out a giant sigh. “Just… don’t do it in the Great Hall, please.”

“Sure can do!”

And with that David walked away to the teacher’s table with his green, dirty robe swishing after him.

Max let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and then glanced at his friends.

“Well that went better than expected.”

The letter was still smoldering in the middle of the table.

* * *

 

With every day closer to Christmas Max was feeling worse and worse. It wasn’t even the giddy atmosphere in the air, it wasn’t the decorations scattered around the school (though yeah, the sparkling, colorful chains could be at fault here, because damn who had put them in bathrooms), it wasn’t the whole idea of the holiday per se that irritated him…

It was the anticipation clearly emanating from almost everyone. Every student was waiting for it, was counting the days till the break, was conversing loudly about plans – was doing everything with such big smiles on their faces that it made Max grimace.

But he wasn’t anticipating it. If he had to be perfectly honest, he wanted the holidays to finally be over.

Getting out of the buzzing with life school to hide in the greenhouse was comforting. Though Max wasn’t particularly sure if the calmness wasn’t only coming from the plants, but also from the redhead accompanying him there.

Because if he had to be honest, with some strange part of himself, David’s presence was comforting.

There were times when they worked in silence. David could feel whenever Max wasn’t in the mood to talk or when he preferred to listen. He didn’t push him to converse, he didn’t push him to do things. Once when Max had been particularly tired, he let him take a nap on the bench for the whole duration of detention without even uttering a word.

David’s soft hums trailing after him were soothing Max’s mind, his kind smiles directed at every plant, like they all were his best friends, were kinda adorable, his calm eyes whenever he explained something to Max were simply alluring – just the whole atmosphere of this place, the soft buzzes of water running somewhere, the delicate brushes of leaves above them, the flutters of wings coming from the birds perked up at the roof –

It all was mesmerizing.

(Though Max would deny thinking like that if someone asked.)

“Why the gloomy face?” David asked, giving Max quite enormous shears.

For a few seconds Max contemplated whether he should tell the man the truth, while he was playing with the gardening tool. In the end he snapped them hard and murmured:

“It’s because of Christmas.”

David stood up and pushed a wooden crate far under his desk.

“You hate Christmas, Max?”

“It’s not that I hate it.” Max said and then looked away. “I just… hate everything that comes with it.”

David turned to him, blinking a few times.

“Like the Christmas trees?”

“Like my parents.” Max quickly clarified, though yeah, some Christmas trees were quite too colorful to his liking.

“What about them?” David asked, tilting his head and grabbing his gloves from the desk to slip them on.

“Because they are a bunch of selfish pricks who drag me around parties, so we all can pretend that we are a big, happy family.” And they were not.

“Oh…” David murmured, glancing up at him, only to cast his gaze away the very next second.

They stepped out from David’s office into the main part of the greenhouse and walked through it. The bucket was hitting David’s leg with every step he took. There was some hesitation swarming in the air between them as they moved to the Wormwoods planted in long pots.

“Can’t you stay at school for the break then?” David finally asked, glancing at Max who had started to cut off the small branches, so they could be dried and turned into a Potion ingredient.

Max shook his head and then snapped the shears. Even though the branches were tini-tiny, it took a hella lot of strength to cut them off. Mighty little beasts.

(David had admitted that he didn’t like doing it, so Max had said that he would do it for him, though he also felt kinda bad for the poor plants.)

“If that was so easy, I wouldn’t return home at all.” Max mumbled and then, like an afterthought, he added. “Nikki invited me over to her home for Christmas.”

Why had he said that!? The words unconsciously had slipped past his lips, without his brain even fully processing whether he even should tell them! Boom and they had been out of his lips! Why, oh why!? David probably didn’t care about that!

It wasn’t like he even wanted to share this information! Why the words were suddenly leaving his lips so smoothly, with ease, when usually a crowbar was needed to crack him open!

David turned to him, stopping digging the ground for a second.

“Oh Max, that’s amazing! You totally should go!”

At that Max only could scoff.

“Yeah, that is not going to happen.”

“Why not? I’m sure if you explain the situation to your parents then –“

“No, David, you don’t understand. They won’t let me go to Nikki.” Max huffed, this time snapping a branch with one clean cut. The leaves fluttered under the force of the shears as Max’s voice rose a bit. “Because they are assholes who think they are above everyone else, especially people like Nikki. And they won’t let their precious son even identify with them.” He spited the words. The ‘precious’ and ‘son’ almost immediately burned his tongue and, oh God, it sounded so wrong to even think that they could talk about him like that.

(Maybe a few years ago it would have hurt him, but not now. Now he knew the truth and the words didn’t hurt, but brought him a kinda sick satisfaction.)

“Oh…” David mumbled.

Max felt that the teacher was staring at him, but he didn’t have it in himself to lift his head up.

For a few minutes they worked in silence – not the usual calm one, but a more vibrating one, because Max was still fuming with anger. His movements weren’t as steady as before and now he cut the branches using definitely too much force, but damn, he had to do something with his hands now.

He was mad.

Because, damn, he wanted to go to Nikki and not return back to the cold, empty and too pristine house he should call home, but was so far away from even mentioning it like one.

Even staying at school would be better. Hell, anything would be better.

(He honestly thought spending it with crazy Daniel would be better than returning home, but well, he had to think it over for a little bit more.)

“Can’t you say that you are forced to stay at school?” David quietly asked, eyes looking at him with worry hiding inside them.

Max swallowed slowly and moved the shears away from a branch that he wanted to cut next.

“No, that won’t work. I already tried. But they wanted some kind of confirmation and hell, I didn’t have that.” He mumbled. “Though now maybe I could fake some letter from a teacher.”

Because back when he had tried he had been a third year and hadn’t known that many spells. But now – as a sixth year – he could maybe know some useful ones. His mind was already swirling with ideas. Yeah, if he asked Neil for help then this could definitely work.

“No, Max, please don’t do it. If the school finds out that you faked a formal teacher’s letter you could be expelled.”

“Well, shit.”

This didn’t sound good. The last thing he wanted was being forced to spend the whole year at home. Yeah, this wasn’t really worth it.

Though maybe…

No, better not.

“So yeah, now you killed my last chances of getting out of my house, so thanks.” Max mumbled, glancing at his teacher with his mouth twitching, forming something like a smirk.

David looked at him and pouted. Pouted! Damn, he looked like a kicked puppy! A very sad, miserable kicked puppy, with drooping ears.

Max didn’t mean it!

But somehow apologizing would be kinda weird in this situation, and so un- _Max_ like so he only turned around and moved the metal blades to another branch.

However leaving it like that didn’t seem too good either.

“Don’t dwell so much on it.” Max finally stated after few minutes. “I’m used to it.”

And somehow the look David gave him now made Max think that maybe it was the wrong thing to say in the end.

Somehow Max totally forgot that he had called David by his first name.

* * *

 

“What do you want for Christmas, Max?” Nikki asked, not really lifting up her head from the essay with which she had been dealing for at least two hours now. And she still missed two inches of text.

“Nothing.” Max said, and well, that was true. “And you?”

“A baby platypus.”

“A baby what?” Neil asked, rising his head from the book and looking kinda surprised. Okay, maybe very surprised. Bewildered even.

“A baby platypus.” Nikki said, puffing out her chest proudly. “You never wanted one?”

Neil glanced at Max, who could only shrug in reply.

“Not really.” The taller teen said. “But maybe you want something that is more… available?”

Nikki groaned and then laid her head down on the table between them.

“You’re no fun, guys. But okay, I’ll come up with something less cool!” She hummed and then looked up at the ceiling. The pen with which she had written (she despised using quill and getting ink all over her parchment and hands) landed between her mouth and nose as she swung back and forth on her chair.

She did it for almost three or so minutes, before she returned to them.

“Maybe a new bat!”

Max glanced at Neil who nodded in reply. This seemed like a good idea. They could buy a more expensive one together.

Neil’s present was easy. A book and he would be content with it. Though maybe after six years it could get boring and kinda predictable, but to be honest Neil insisted on them buying him books. He would simply just state what title he wanted.

That’s why his present was already secured under Max’s bed. No one really dared to even snoop around his things, so that was the safest place in the castle.

Though getting Nikki’s present two weeks before Christmas will be kinda though, but not impossible.

If he had to be honest, Max kinda liked buying Christmas gifts. Or well, maybe not buying it, because he hated the crowd that always occupied every shop near this day of the year. It was suffocating with bodies pressed close to you, pushing you around like some kind of a rag doll – when you only wanted to buy one thing that you already had in your hands.

But no, people were vicious.

So yeah, Max didn’t like buying presents per se, but giving them. Well, he hadn’t found it out until… well until he had actually started hanging out with Nikki and Neil.

(He kinda liked seeing the smiles stretching over their lips, accompanied by a soft glint sparkling inside their eyes.)

However receiving presents was something totally different. He liked them (he would even dare to say that he even loved them), but he always felt uncomfortable when he was opening a package for him. Only for him. Bought and packed just for him.

This idea was so weird, that it always made Max simply… freeze.

Gladly he doubted his parents would get him anything or anything nice for that matter. They rarely exchanged presents and Max was okay with that. He didn’t even want to get them anything.

(Because gifts were something special.)

Max lifted his head when he heard Nikki groan loudly, messing her hair with the pen sticking out of her mouth. Oh she still didn’t finish the essay.

“Neil, do you think –“

“No.” Neil quickly said, flipping a page of his book.

Max snorted under his nose as he put his elbow on the table and then leaned his chin on his hand. He glanced at the blond haired boy with one raised eyebrow.

Neil looked at him and then gazed at Nikki, who was now staring at him with puppy eyes. Max didn’t even have to see the girl to know she was doing it. Neil’s slowly crumbling certainty, clearly visible on his façade, was enough for a proof.

In the end, Max knew what would happen.

Neil sighed and then moved closer to the desk.

“Show me the book.”

* * *

 

David was acting weird.

Okay, David was one of the weirdest teachers in the school. Daniel wasn’t weird, Daniel was creepy. Gwen wasn’t weird, Gwen was… well, Max wasn’t even sure how to describe her. Probably irritating.

But David was beyond the scale. With him being optimistic and smiling at everyone he passed on the corridor, he had to earn himself a place beyond the scale.

(At first Max had hated it, his mind hadn’t been able to stand the optimism clearly seeping from him, radiating warmness and happiness around. But with time –)

However David wasn’t always like that. There were times when his mood was down, when he would still smile at students he passed in corridors, but with something terribly forced behind the sparkling eyes.

It repeated itself every year. To this point every student knew it was there. Winter – near Christmas – always brought a significant drop of the Herbology teacher’s mood. And people would blame it on the man being sad that so many students would move away for the break. But Max knew it wasn’t true. Because if it was, the same thing would happen near summer. But it didn’t, so that simply couldn’t be true. There had to be different reasons.

But no one asked and Max wouldn’t be the first one to do so. Even though he kinda wanted to.

He had noticed the differences between David’s smiles, getting smaller and smaller with every passing day, closer to Christmas. He had seen the light – the spark, the burning with passion flame – disappearing from his eyes, dimming out, getting smaller, tiny with every passing minute. He had noticed the shoulders dropping down, the posture freezing, the heavy, gray, dirty, disgusting bags appearing under his eyes.

No one knew the reasons, but everyone knew it was happening.

So Max hadn’t been surprised to see David with the similar symptoms whenever he had visited him for detention. He had seen David locking himself out, he had seen the light slowly disappearing from the eyes, he had seen David losing focus and staring at nothing in general, but in the same time looking like he was reliving thousands of memories altogether.

Max had seen it all.

(And even though his heart hurt, he couldn’t do much about it)

So he was quite surprised when one day – very close to Christmas – he stepped into the greenhouse to the image of David smiling from ear to ear.

Yeah, that was a peculiar sight.

“Hey, Max. We have a beautiful day today, don’t you think?”

Max could only stare back as he got rid of his jacket, only to throw it in a random direction as always. It landed on a chair standing in the corner.

“If by beautiful you mean cold as…” Ah, not a curse word, not a curse word. But it still was David. “… shit, then you’re right.”

David chuckled, peeking at him from behind a tall tree. Even though it was freezing outside, it was always warm inside the greenhouse. It felt like the outside weather – the whole world – had no ability to control this glass building. Every snowflake on a jacket immediately died while stepping inside, every rain drop disappeared in the atmosphere, every sun ray was doubled while getting through the vitreous ceiling.

“It could be cold, but it’s still nice.”

“Tell yourself that.”

David was smiling for the whole day. He was humming some sickening, sweet song under his nose, moving around the greenhouse to the rhythm of the beat.

Seeing him in such a good mood near the Christmas break was well… definitely weird.

And Max couldn’t tear his gaze away. Of course he couldn’t. He couldn’t look away from the sudden, positive spark dancing in David’s eyes. He couldn’t stop staring at the pink, stretched lips. He couldn’t stop looking at the body moving from one corner to the other, with hips occasionally tilting and swirling to the beat of the music coming from the earphones.

It felt like every worry was lifted from David’s shoulders, who moved unpredictably, swirling the wand around and rearranging things. His hand delicately touched every flower, every leaf, every branch, accompanied by soft words leaving his mouth. The plants swirled around him, some even moved when he touched them, leaning into his caring touch and soft words.

Even the most dangerous ones – a Venomous Tentacula – curled one of its vines around David’s wrist when he tried to move his hand away after petting it, only to bring it back.

David laughed – that stupid, honest, and just so beautiful laugh and…

Max’s hand twitched and he accidentally spilled some soil onto the ground. Well it was soil and it was on the ground, so there wasn’t much he could do, only kick it around.

“Everything okay?” David asked from the other side of the greenhouse, giggling when the vine around his hand moved higher and tickled his cheek.

For Max it would be terrifying and, to be honest, he was keeping himself as far away from the venomous and quite fatal plant as he could. But David was treating it like a child.

(Max even once had seen him playing with it by throwing colorful hoops on the vines! Like how!? Max was sure that the plant would attack anyone who would get too close to it, but David was patting it with no problems.)

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” Just really fucking astonished, Max concluded, staring with wide eyes at the vine that slowly started to retract itself from David’s cheek. Creepy. “I just… noticed that you are in a very good mood today.”

The red haired teacher blinked and then like some kind of an understanding appeared on his face, or maybe some kind or revelation, because he turned to the Tentacula and scratched it under one curly vine.

“Yeah, I guess I am.” The man stated, mouth still smiling.

There was another brief silence between them – in which Max managed to put the pot down and start pouring seeds onto the soil in it.

“Is it bad? I mean me… being happy.” David suddenly asked, voice weirdly quiet and empty of all the happiness it had possessed a few seconds ago.

He asked this question like he expected Max to know why he usually was so sad around this time of the year. But Max didn’t know why David was acting like that – no one really knew – so he wasn’t sure how to answer.

But then David glanced at him, some weird fear hiding behind his lush, green, like forest in the morning eyes and Max decided he didn’t like it. He didn’t like seeing David so devastated, so lost, so empty of all these positive vibes that were clearly vibrating in his core.

“No.” Max licked his lips. “It’s not bad. I think most of us prefer to see you smiling than moping around.”

Max quickly looked away, not being able to stare back at the teacher. There was a swelling sensation in his chest – spreading from the center of his body, to his fingers and toes, and making him very aware of everything around him.

A lone bird chirped as it landed on the window ceiling above them.

“Thank you, Max. It really means a lot.”

For the rest of the detention they didn’t talk much, only worked in comfortable silence, with the humid, warm atmosphere floating between them. Soon after David returned to humming under his nose and Max’s muscles relaxed to this point he almost forgot that it was his last detention before he will have to move back to his home for the break.

Unfortunately the thought returned when David grinned at him and said:

“I hope you’ll have a happy break!”

Max stopped buttoning his coat and glanced at his teacher with one raised eyebrow.

“I doubt that any time spent with my parents could be called happy… but thanks.” He said. “You too, Mister David.”

The man blinked at that and tilted his head, like he was unsure about something or was recalling some memory. But the lost look quickly disappeared and the same soft, kinda childish grin started to dance in the corner of his lips.

“I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this break, Max!”

Max doubted it, but decided not to repeat himself out loud.

* * *

 

“Max, are you sure you really can’t come over, even for a day?” Nikki asked, staring at him again with these puppy eyes. “Even Neil is coming over for one day!”

Neil looked at her from above his book and sighed.

“Nikki, you’re making me sound like I don’t want to go.”

“Shhh, Neil.”

Max looked up from his half-eaten breakfast.

“Nikki, you know if I could I would leave my folks behind and go right to your house.” Max said and then moved the sausage around on his plate. “But they expect me home tomorrow.”

He could escape his home and go to Nikki for one day, but to be honest he didn’t really want to know what his parents would do in this situation. And he didn’t want to give Nikki more problems than she already had.

And Max’s parents were vengeful.

Nikki opened her mouth, but Neil shook his head, so she closed it and looked down at her empty plate.

Max looked up at her. He hated seeing her so down. The grimace didn’t fit her face, a grin, stretched from ear to ear fitted her more.

“Listen, Nikki –“

But the rest of his words – he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to say in the end – were killed when something smacked Max right in the face. He cursed loudly, then opened his eyes when he heard a loud flapping sound and glanced down.

Oh, a letter.

A letter? One day before Christmas?

Max immediately recognized the envelope – the fancy yellowish paper with a few black swirls in two corners. His parents had written him a letter. But why? One day before Christmas? What could they want more? Did they want him to go back home early?

Max furrowed his eyebrows, grabbed the envelope and turned it. With his fingers he bent the paper and took out the parchment resting inside.

One heart beat – and he flung it open.

There was silence above them as Max’s eyes moved through the words, sentences, fast, faster and faster with every second. He knew Nikki and Neil were glancing at him curiously, even trying to look at what his parents had written to him, but Max moved the letter closer to his eyes, because he couldn’t believe it. Because this couldn’t be true!

His heart beat so fast, so heavily, so loud inside his chest and ears and, oh God, it was painful, it really hurt, but the pain was drowned by the happiness quickly spreading from the center of his body to all his nerves, making him almost shiver with excitement running through his blood.

He couldn’t believe it, he couldn’t believe it. This couldn’t be true! But if it was true, then –

Neil grabbed the letter.

– someone had to help him.

“Read it out loud!” Nikki shouted from the other side of the table.

Neil cleared his throat and started reading.

“Dear Maxwell, we hope you’re doing good… blah blah blah… We met with Minister… blah blah blah…“ Neil’s eyes jumped from one paragraph to another, quickly scanning the letters written there. ”… we were very sad when we received a letter from your teacher informing us that you won’t be able to come home for the Christmas break!?” Now Neil shrieked these words out, at this point some students glanced at them, interested in what was going on there.

Nikki opened her mouth and glanced at Max.

“Of course, we would be enamored if you could return home, but we understand you now have more important things to do at school. We are so proud of you.” Neil blinked, like he couldn’t really believe what he was reading and then glanced at Max, who felt like he burst.

“… blah blah… we wish you a Merry Christmas and expect you to behave…” Neil quickly finished the letter.

The silence took over the table as everyone processed the words written there. Nikki only gaped with mouth wide open, Neil looked like his brain stopped working and Max…

Max felt like he was flying.

“But how?” Neil mumbled.

_I have a feeling you’ll enjoy this break, Max!_

Max quickly lifted his head to look at the teacher’s table. No, the familiar mop of red hair wasn’t there. So this meant there was only one other place where he could be.

Max quickly stood up, grabbed the letter and jumped over the bench, only to run out from the Great Hall.

“Max, where are you going?!” Neil shouted after him, but Max had no time to answer as the wind rushed past him.

Without a coat, he jumped out the castle, feeling the coldness trying to nip on his cheeks and eyelids, but he didn’t care. His heart worked so hard, pushing blood through his veins that he barely even felt a hint of the cold which tried to slow him down.

But he felt like he could soar.

The greenhouse was getting bigger and bigger with every step that was bringing him closer and closer – his brain was a mess, a tangled, swirling mess!

Max grabbed the door, panting like crazy, and he swung them open, almost crashing them into the wall. The glass shivered heavily, but gladly remained in its place.

And David was there, in the middle of the greenhouse, taking off his dirty gloves.

“Oh, hey Max. What are you doing here so ear–“

“Did you do it?!” Max shouted, stepping inside and quickly moving to David.

“What did I do?” The red haired male asked, tilting his head.

Max marched forward, faster and faster with every second, with heart beating heavily and so so loudly in his ears that it drowned all other sounds. In just a few steps he was in front of David, definitely invading his personal space (which he wasn’t sure David actually had). The man took a small step back, but his façade didn’t change. It looked more like an automatic response than anything else.

Max was close, so close that he could count every small freckle on David’s cheeks.

“My parents? What did you tell my parents?” Max asked, taking another step forward, leaning close, closer. He was so close that he could smell the soil residing on David’s coat.

The teacher blinked.

“Oh.” He said and then licked his lips, suddenly looking unsure, hesitant, with eyes darting to the side. “Well… you looked quite devastated when you talked about returning home. So I wrote to them and told that you are a part of a very important project and have to stay at school to work on it.” David exhaled slowly through his nose and Max felt a movement near his chest. “I’m sorry, I thought that would make you happy.” The teacher sucked in his bottom lip and bit it, eyes returning to Max. “I’m sorry, if you want me to write to them –”

Max wasn’t a person who liked personal contact. Okay, yeah, maybe that was wrong. He didn’t like people touching him and vice versa when he didn’t know them. When he knew someone and liked them he wouldn’t mind some high-fives, small ruffles of hair here and there, or even tiny hugs – especially from Nikki.

With David it was different. When Max had noticed the change in his feelings, he deliberately had tried not to get too close to David, because he wasn’t sure he could control himself around the man.

But there were times when his urges and emotions took over his brain, shutting down all logical ways of thinking.

And before his mind could even whisper that maybe it was wrong, that maybe he shouldn’t do it, that maybe he would reveal his feelings, he simply moved unconsciously. Something in him snapped and before he could even process what was happening his hands were moving, wrapping themselves around David and bringing him in for a hug – a tight embrace that resonated inside his bones with shivers running down his spine.

David squeaked – or at least it sounded like that – before his mouth was pressed tightly into Max’s shirt as the boy tightened his hold on the man.

A silence spread between them – a thick, kinda heavy silence in which Max could hear every soft movement, every delicate whisper of a plant, every far away chirp of a bird. He could hear and feel David’s breath on his shirt. He could sense David’s heartbeat speeding up, only for it to slowly – step after step – return to its normal pace of beating.

“Max?” David’s finally asked, tilting his head, so he could speak. The movement made David’s hairs tickle Max’s nose and, _oh_ , he was burying his face in the fluffy red curls.

Max had to say something, but he didn’t know what. He felt like every word, sentence, idea wasn’t enough. Like no matter what he would say, it still wouldn’t be enough.

“Thank you.” Max finally murmured into David’s hair, feeling the warmness inside his chest boiling, getting bigger and bigger with every second to the point Max was sure he could explode. “Thank you.”

There was another moment of silence in which nothing happened, but then there was shuffling near Max’s body and he felt a soft touch of David’s hands on his back.

“No problem.” David’s mumbled.

At this point Max’s brain finally started to catch up with the flow of the events. Max was hugging David – his teacher. Someone could see them! And get the wrong idea! And then David could have problems!

But damn, he didn’t want to move away, he didn’t want to get away from the warmness seeping from David’s body into his bones, he didn’t want to move away from the ghost of a hot breath coming from the red haired male, he didn’t want to lose the feeling of the body beneath his palms.

He wanted to stay like that for few more seconds, maybe minutes, maybe –

No, he had to move away.

So with a heavy heart, Max untangled his palms from David’s waist and slowly stepped away. The feeling of the teacher’s hands leaving his back made his stomach drop and, damn, how he wanted to step forward and return to what they had had a few seconds ago.

David’s face was hinted with pink color, smeared over his cheeks like some kind of paint, but he didn’t look fazed by the situation. Had so many students suddenly hugged him that he had stopped being fazed by it?

(Max didn’t really like that idea, but David was known for listening to everyone.)

David’s hair was kinda ruffled, with the strands sticking in weird directions, even weirder ones than usual.

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I still can’t let you go to Nikki for the whole break, but… two or three days won’t hurt anyone.” David said, the same goofy smirk returning to his lips.

And, God, Max wasn’t sure he could fall more for that man.

Yet he did.

 


	2. II

_"(…) And we keep loving anyway_

_We laugh and we cry_

_And we break_

_And we make our mistakes (…)”_

_– Lin-Manuel Miranda_

**ﾟ ｡ ･ * . ☆ ━  II  ━ ☆ . * ･ ｡ ﾟ**

Christmas at Nikki’s house was nothing like Christmas at Max’s. His house was dull, empty, hollow and emotionless. It was cold and dreadful. It was ripped of all those warm tones it was supposed to have, even though the lights and colorful ribbons were scattered all over the place, decorating perfectly every possible corner in the house.

Max’s Christmas consisted of a silent dinner and too expensive gifts that never were useful and never brought even a simple spark of joy.

Nikki’s house was a mess – a very positive, lively, vivid, cheerful, warm, sizzling and beautiful mess that made Max want nothing more than to stay here forever.

Nikki’s father’s house wasn’t hollow – it was a disaster with dozens and dozens of toys (mostly belonging to Nikki’s younger brothers), clothes, half-finished furniture, half-eaten packets of biscuits and random utensils lying here and there. An iron in the middle of the kitchen? No problem. A pile of dirty clothes waiting to be washed in the corridor? Sure. An unfinished homework lying on the floor in the living room? Yeah, everyone had to jump over it.

It was a disaster, a mess without any control and Max loved it.

(Neil didn’t like it so much, especially as he stepped into a puddle of water after he had taken off his shoes.)

Nikki’s father welcomed Max with a heavy pat on the back. Nikki’s stepmother gave him cookies and pinched his cheek. Nikki’s little brothers almost tripped him when they ran through the corridor to the kitchen.

It was amazing.

Max decided to stay there for two days – he didn’t want to make things difficult for David, but he was still kinda selfish, so two days it was. He was going to sleep on Nikki’s floor in a borrowed sleeping bag. Neil too, but he brought his own one.

Max wasn’t sure how he should behave or what he should actually be doing during Christmas, but Nikki’s stepmother quickly found him and Neil a job. Nikki was left to get rid of the raccoons sleeping under the roof.

The house was loud – kids screamed, people laughed, things got broken, a dog loudly barked at the shimmering lights – and God, that was amazing.

The Christmas dinner wasn’t silent, but filled with voices, shouts, yelps, asks, answers, groans – with conversations ruling over the table to the soft accompaniment of clashing and squeaking utensils.

It was the best Christmas in Max’s life.

After the dinner they spent the evening and night in Nikki’s room, where they played something on a big, flat screen using weird thingies – controllers apparently or at least Nikki called them that. Max sucked at it first, but quickly found a way to defeat both his friends and be at the very top of the ranking. Nikki threw a giant pack of crisps at him which exploded, showering them with salty treats.

Max laughed when Neil started screeching that the salt got into his eyes.

They talked till the Sun welcomed them on the horizon.

* * *

 

 “And this is a present from us!” Nikki happily said, pushing a package into Max’s chest.

“Is it gonna explode?” He asked, staring at the pink paper.

He could never be sure with Nikki nor Neil.

“Unfortunately no.” The girl sighed. “Neil killed the fun part.”

The teen huffed and stared at the girl from behind a book (his present from Max, thank you very much) with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m so bad for not trying to kill my friend.”

“Totally.”

Max snorted and then put the package on his lap. He quickly tore through the childish, pink paper to unwrap a plain, brown box, which he then opened. Inside there were Filibuster Fireworks, tons of sweets and a scarf with a logo of his favourite Quidditch team.

Max grinned under his nose when he found a small note at the very bottom which only said ‘use fireworks only to mess with crazy Daniel’.

“Thanks guys.” Max said, feeling the happiness bubbling inside his chest, but he held it down strongly to not let it show on his face.

But it was probably a futile job, because Nikki was grinning at him like crazy. Even Neil had a soft smile tugging at the corners of his lips behind the book.

The rest of the day was spent eating the leftovers from yesterday’s dinner, watching TV, laughing at the lame jokes said there and occasionally fighting with Nikki’s brothers.

And too soon the evening came and Max had to return to the school.

Nikki’s stepmother packed him a whole bag of food (Neil too). Max had no heart to tell her that he didn’t have any place to hide it, so he just took it and thanked the woman. Nikki’s father shook his hand and smiled warmly. He told Max that he would always be welcome here.

In overall it wasn’t much, but damn, it was a lot in Max’s opinion.

* * *

 

To be honest Max was kinda tired when he returned to the dorm. Plus a soft hue coming from a candle wasn’t giving him much light, so it was logical that he didn’t see a few packages lying near his bed.

But he did notice them in the morning, when he almost crashed down because his leg got caught under one.

“What the…”

Oh yeah, his parents had also sent him a present – wrapped in a neat, gold paper. For a brief moment Max thought about leaving it here, maybe even throwing it out of the window, but then decided it was better to get this over with.

Some fancy clothes, a tie and a book – where the shirts looked uncomfortable, the tie had a disgusting pattern and the book was about economy.

Yeah, this present totally deserved being thrown out of the window. Or maybe he could burn it. It would probably burn nicely.

Max scoffed under his nose. Yeah, his parents will probably expect him to wear those things, so maybe getting rid of them wasn’t that best idea. Especially as he didn’t want nor had the energy to search for excuses.

So in the end he grabbed the pile and pushed it in the furthest part of his trunk. He had to give it a good few kicks to push it between some books, but soon the present was buried deep down and was hopefully taken off Max’s mind for at least few months from now on.

So what should Max do? He still had a few days of freedom and no detention. Of course he had a shit ton of homework he could do, but yeah… that could wait till the very last few days, so he could then curse himself that he didn’t start earlier.

So yeah, a day of doing nothing it was.

Beautiful.

* * *

 

Okay, maybe it wasn’t as beautiful as Max initially had thought, because damn it was fucking boring. The castle was so empty that he had barely seen anyone walking around!

Even the teachers’ table was almost empty. Yet he definitely saw crazy Daniel talking with a Numerology teacher.

(David was absent, but it was normal. He usually was late for breakfasts, so Max’s brain didn’t let him dwell too long on it, even though he kinda wanted to see the teacher.)

So he spent most of the day sitting in the common room and reading random books. For a brief moment he even wanted to start doing homework, but his brain quickly shot that idea down.

He wondered what David was doing. From what Max knew and heard from other people, David never really returned home. Not counting the fact that beside him there was no one here who could take care of the plants, it didn’t look like he had anyone to whom he could return.

Maybe that was why he was so gloomy during Christmas? It was a possibility, but Max had a feeling that this wasn’t exactly true. There were of course tons of rumors spreading through the school like a disease, but Max hardly believed them. They were only there to make people enjoy evenings in the common rooms.

Max hadn’t seen David for the whole day.

So Max spent this whole day doing nothing.

When he washed himself, he moved slowly to his empty bedroom (the rest of his roommates had gone home for Christmas), whistling some catchy song he had heard in Nikki’s house under his nose. A few people wished him a good night and he only nodded at them in reply.

Inside his bedroom he lit up a candle and slowly shuffled around, hiding his dirty clothes and books he had read today in his trunk. After that he stretched his hands above his head and then moved to his bed –

Only to stomp on something kinda crunchy during this process.

Max glanced down. It was hard to see anything in the dim light of the candle (he could definitely use _Lumos_ , but well then it would be too bright), but there was an outline of something lying under his foot. He leaned down and grabbed it.

Max sat on the bed, moved the candle closer on the nightstand and looked at the thing he had stomped on.

It was a package, wrapped in a plain brown, kinda tough paper with a yellowish string holding it all together.

What the heck? Was it another Christmas’ present? But from whom? Some far away relatives? But then again why would they send it now, after so many years?

Only one way to find out.

Max grabbed the thread and pulled, untying it and letting it fall softly onto the bed. Then he slowly moved the paper away, which rustled and swished under the touch.

Max blinked.

Gloves. Typical gardening gloves. Kinda thick, navy blue gloves.

Max grabbed them, feeling kinda harsh touch of the leather under his fingertips. He rolled them over and _oh!_ a small piece of parchment fell from between the fingers.

_Merry Christmas!_

_I thought they may come in handy :)_

_David_

Max stared at the gloves. There was a short silence inside his chest, but it was quickly broken when a sudden waterfall of emotions surged through his lungs – with happiness foaming at the very top and overpowering his chest and ability to breathe. It was a small present – a simple pair of gloves. Max wasn’t even interested in gardening or taking care of plants – but it still felt like he received the best present in the whole world.

It was stupid, maybe it was even childish or unreasonable – but feelings, _crushes_ , always were. And Max was glad that currently he was alone in the bedroom, because damn, he knew he was smiling under his nose, he could sense his muscles stretching into a grin as joy stormed through his mind.

David had not only helped him have the best Christmas of Max’s life, but he had also given him a present. And he didn’t have to do either of those things!

Max’s mouth was dry as he slowly put on the gloves. They were kinda hard, as the material wasn’t bending to his will, just as the old one always did, but soon after he had the pair on his palms. He moved his fingers, wiggling them a little bit, feeling the leather bend and twist under the movement.

His heart rose inside his chest like it wanted to fly, float, run far away.

(Or maybe not far away at all, but just to the greenhouse a few floors away.)

It was stupid. It was only a pair of gloves – gardening ones – but Max still felt like he just received one of the best gifts ever.

And he felt a sudden urge to jump out of the bed and run, to the greenhouse, to the man and thank him somehow, but he quickly drowned those needs. First, even David at this hour probably wouldn’t be in the greenhouse and second… Well, there was no second reason – other than the fact that it was probably stupid.

But tomorrow he will definitely find David and thank him.

* * *

 

Easier said than done – as most things in life actually.

David wasn’t at breakfast, which wasn’t surprising. Plus Max wasn’t really sure whether he wanted to thank the man in front of the other students – not many students, but still students.

Surprisingly Daniel wasn’t present either.

Max furrowed his eyebrows, but decided not to dwell on it too much.

So this left only one thing to do and it was visiting David in the greenhouse. He was almost constantly there. Sometimes it even looked like he was sleeping there, but that wasn’t the truth. Though Max wouldn’t be surprised if the man indeed spent a few nights there, just because he fell asleep on his desk.

With every step bringing him closer to the greenhouse, Max felt more and more nervous, with the stress pulling on his nerves, like some kind of a musical instrument. The heart beat and drummed so loud in his ears that he barely heard any other sounds – including the snow crunching beneath his shoes.

And in just a few minutes he was in front of the greenhouse. A few breaths to calm his shivering chest and then he grabbed the doorknob.

Only to find out that the door was locked.

What the hell? David wasn’t here? But then where could he be?

Max tried the door once again, but it didn’t budge, only rattled loudly. After that he circled the greenhouse in search for some additional entrances. He found two, but one was barricaded with wooden planks and the other one was also closed.

Shit.

Max circled the building one more time, but when he found out there was no way of getting in, he stopped in front of it and kicked a lone pile of snow. The stress fully melted inside his body and was replaced with the mushy, muddy, uncomfortable mess of anger, disappointment and worry.

David didn’t appear at dinner nor supper and he wasn’t in his greenhouse till the end of the day.

* * *

 

When he didn’t appear for breakfast the very next day Max was kinda (really) worried.

Yeah, that something squeezing his insides, making them clench painfully, was definitely worry.

However today Daniel appeared near the teachers’ table. He didn’t smile at anyone, only gave them short, courteous nods as a greeting and then sat down to eat something.

Max observed the table from the corner of his eyes, eating bacon from his plate. It tasted perfect, but it still left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

Somewhere near the end of breakfast, Daniel leaned to Gwen, sitting on his left, and whispered something into her ear. The woman glanced at him, nodded and said something back quickly. Soon after Daniel took one last sip from his cup and then stood up. He was just about to move away when he turned to the table and snatched a raspberry muffin from one plate.

What the hell? Daniel hated sweets. No one even saw him sugaring his drinks, so why was he now stealing muffins?

* * *

 

The dinner was delicious, yet it felt like ash inside his mouth.

Okay, at this point Max couldn’t lie to himself anymore. David still wasn’t at the dinner. But that wasn’t the worst fact. It was Gwen, anxiously glancing a few times at a chair where the man was usually sitting.

So something had to be wrong.

Max had never stayed for the Christmas break, so he didn’t know if this was normal. And asking other students seemed like a bad idea. So this probably left two options possible – ignoring it and asking some teacher about it.

And damn, Max wanted to ignore it. But he couldn’t – even the simple idea of doing it was making him twitch internally, with his stomach churning painfully. So yeah, that was out of the question. Which left the more stressful option – asking someone about it.

(And this option had a high risk of accidentally revealing himself and Max didn’t want that.)

His best shot was Gwen. Of course he could always ask Daniel (as he was also friends with David – _how_ was still beyond Max’s mind comprehension), but the teacher hated him, so maybe this wasn’t the best route here.

It took Max a few hours to find the courage to walk through the castle to Gwen’s office.

However he never reached it, because one voice stopped him:

“Max, can you come with me for a second? I need to talk with you about something.”

Shit, it was crazy Daniel, staring at him with that cold, deadly look.

Max didn’t have any good excuse that would help him escape the man, so he only nodded and followed Daniel into the Dungeons from which he had come out just a few minutes ago.

Their steps echoed loudly in the empty, stone corridors, accompanied by drops of water dripping somewhere in the darkest corners of this place. Not even once did the blond teacher glance back to check if Max was following him, but Max didn’t mind.

And way too soon they were stepping into Daniel’s dark office, illuminated only by a lone candle standing almost too close to the edge of the desk.

“Please sit down.”

Max was too familiar with this place. He had spent too many hours here – hours filled with Daniel giving him detentions, talking about his bad behavior or giving him long, boring lectures about acting his age. So he sat down on the used chair, feeling the familiar seat beneath himself.

Daniel circled the desk, flicked through a few pages of the open book he had there and then sat down. He intertwined his fingers and hid his mouth behind them.

Max put one leg on another and threw one hand on the backrest.

“So what did I do this time?” He asked.

Because this had to be it. Max didn’t know what he could have done wrong, what kind of thing pissed Daniel off now, but he must have done something to land here once again. He didn’t know what, but Daniel probably had no problem finding a small, unimportant reason.

However Daniel blinked, looking kinda taken aback.

“I’m not here because I have done something?” Max asked, raising his eyebrow.

“No, not this time.” The Potions teacher said, shaking his head a little. “I brought you here to ask for a… favor of sort.”

Favor? Daniel asking him for a favor?

Did Max die and was in hell? Because it had to be it. But where could he die? Maybe he had fallen from the tower and everything after that had been some weird, messed-up seconds of beautiful dreams before fully slipping away from this world? It was a possibility. A high possibility, because Daniel would never ask Max for help.

Plus he didn’t really want to do it.

“Favor?’ Max parroted.

“Or more like David is asking for a favor from you.”

Max’s heart skipped a long, painful beat, knocking on the chest heavily. He was fucking sure Daniel could hear it! Because there was no way the man hadn’t heard that!

So something indeed was wrong. This lone thought made Max flinch, made him shiver and tremble internally. He didn’t want that. He didn’t want for anything to be wrong.

“What happened?” Max found himself asking, letting his hand drop and leaning forward, closer to the desk and to the man.

Now it was Daniel’s turn to raise his eyebrow. He sighed and then flattened his hands on the desk.

“David is feeling… under the weather nowadays.” Daniel stated, stopping in the middle and looking around, like he searched for a perfect word to use in this situation. “So he is asking if you could take care of his plants in the greenhouses?”

Max was… lost. His brain stopped working for a second and only came back again after he blinked a few times. But no, Daniel was still sitting there, behind the desk, and staring intently at him.

And Max wasn’t sure how to respond. On one hand he was kinda happy about it, kinda even proud that David asked Max to help him around the greenhouse. But on the other hand he was terrified. Because it had to be really bad, if David wasn’t able to take care of his precious plants. And Max was scared of failing.

Because, to be honest, he didn’t have a green thumb. Back at home he hadn’t even remembered to water the only one plant he had had in his room and suddenly now he was supposed to be taking care of the whole greenhouse?

That was a great responsibility and Max really didn’t want to let David down.

“Why me?” He asked instead.

“I don’t know either.” Daniel stated the truth, and damn Max really felt his hand twitch, only to curl into a fist under the desk. “He asked me to ask you.”

“Why won’t you do it?”

Daniel’s eye twitched. He tapped one finger on the counter rhythmically.

“The plants in the greenhouse… don’t like me that much.”

Oh, to be honest that was really gratifying. Max wasn’t sure whether plants in David’s greenhouses liked him either, but knowing that they didn’t like the blond haired teacher was a very pleasant thought.

(Okay, it was a very amazing feeling, spreading through his chest like some kind of a virus.)

Max tried really hard to not show any emotions on his face, but he couldn’t stop the small twitch of his mouth. Daniel probably noticed it, because he furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth. Mas was expecting some kind of a snarky, unkind remark, but then the man sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Listen, Max. I just need an answer. Will you do it?”

Will Max do it? He wanted to do it, to somehow repay the kindness David had given and showed him, but he was terrified.

“I don’t know anything about his plants. I don’t know how to take care of them.” Max finally answered truthfully, slumping and sliding down the chair a little bit.

Daniel moved the hand back and put it into his pocket to take out a folded piece of parchment. He passed it to Max, who hesitantly grabbed it and opened.

It was an instruction – a pretty long one – which described what someone should do at specific hours, which plant should be watered, where to move them, which flower needed this or that potion and which had to be placed in shadowed spaces. It also had a small annotation where the utensils and gardening tools were hidden.

Max blinked. Everything was well thoroughly written there, step after step, in an easy, kinda sloppy, way.

Max swallowed hard. He could sense the stress pulling on his nerves, but it was also mixed with something else. Some kind of assurance and a spark of need of responsibility bursting behind his eyes.

“So?” Daniel asked, leaning back and crossing his hands.

Max could see he was displeased with the whole situation – probably the most humiliating thing he had done in his entire life was asking Max, of all people, for help.

Max took a deep breath and then folded the paper back.

“I need some keys, right?”

* * *

 

The door opened with a low croak and a whine when he pushed it and stepped into the humid greenhouse.

In the dim light of the afternoon Max could see a shift in the background, a slow movement of leaves, vines and petals fluttering around. Several flies buzzed in the air, circling Max’s head as he swatted them away. He lifted his hand and casted _Lumos_ – a simple, blue ball floated above him, lightening up the place.

The Flutterby bush on Max’s left quivered and shook as he passed it to get further into the greenhouse.

The place without David happily singing around felt devastated, kinda scary, but mostly lonely. It seemed ten times darker, with the shadows dancing around as Max stepped above the vine and then jumped over a root sticking from the ground.

He could sense a few plants turning their pods and leaves at him, but he decided to ignore them. If they attacked him, he could always defend himself. However he really didn’t want to harm any of David’s precious plants – especially as he wasn’t feeling well nowadays.

They never had been hostile towards him, but also David always had been with him here. Now he was all alone, trying to do something at which he wasn’t good.

But he wanted to do it. He wanted to thank David somehow, to make him feel a little bit better and allow him to take his time to rest and then return back in the future, being the bright sunshine he always was.

Max took out the parchment and read through it one more time, even though he had already done it like fifty times.

He found every tool he needed and started working, moving around the thick atmosphere of the greenhouse and doing every task he should do during the afternoon and evening.

A few plants swished around him, almost peeking (if plants could peek) at him curiously, trying to decipher what he was doing and why it felt so different and unfamiliar.

Max only smiled sadly at them and then shook his head, moving the watering can to another pot.

It took a few hours to finish all the task he had to do. The sky turned black and the birds already left the place, leaving him accompanied only by the sounds of swishing around vines and leaves. When he was done, he hid everything in its rightful place, ran through the list one more time and then walked around the greenhouse to see if anything needed his assistance. Oh, there was one tilted bush which he put back in its straight position. There was also one flower which was bent, so Max took a stick and tied a thin thread around it and stalk, making it stand proudly once again. In the light coming from the orb above him he didn’t see any more anomalies, so he slowly moved to the exit and stepped outside, closing the door softly after himself.

* * *

 

Okay, waking up so early definitely wasn’t comfortable. If David had to do it every day, then no wonder he had bags under his eyes.

The early morning wind nipped painfully on Max’s nose and his fingers, so he fastened his pace and in just a few minutes he was in front of the door and taking out the keys. Opening the door now took way more strength, but it was probably due to the coldness of the night which had frozen the hinges.

Max stepped into the humid greenhouse, smiling at the emanating warmness which transferred to his skin.

A few leaves waggled, almost in a waving motion, shivering and bending around. Max clasped his hands, brushed them together to get some feeling back and then slipped on the gloves David had given him.

The morning routine was kinda shorter – or maybe Max felt like that, because now it didn’t take him twice as much time to find the needed things, tools, plants and rows. A few flowers even wiggled happily when the crystal clear water was poured on them (the note said that he should pour water on them and not only on soil) and it weirdly made Max vibrate inside.

The birds returned and flew above the glass ceiling, chirping and fluttering their wings.

Max moved to the small pot standing in the corner and watered it, bending down in the process. The plant’s leaves were kinda brown and it didn’t look like it was in the best condition.

It would probably break David’s heart to see it like this.

“Sorry, bud. Hope you’ll feel better.” Max said, not really sure why he was speaking in the first place. He wasn’t sure whether the plants could hear him, but he had seen David doing it so many times that the words slipped almost naturally from his mouth.

Maybe it was his imagination, but he could almost see the plant twitch after the words had left his mouth.

(It had to be Max’s brain playing tricks on him.)

He shook his head and stood up.

Though a few more times his mouth slipped and he found himself talking to the plants. Those weren’t big conversations, but simple words and sentences. Sometimes it felt like he had a response and sometimes not. Though once he had to scold one tree, because Max was sure it lifted its root just to make him trip.

He finished his tasks, took off his gloves – now dirty with soil, water and other different things – and then moved to the exit.

“See ya later.”

* * *

 

At some point Max fully stopped caring that he was talking with the plants. To be honest he was kinda lonely – without Nikki and Neil here, he didn’t have that many other friends with whom he could speak and most of them were at home anyway.

And if he had to be honest with himself, the greenhouse was calming him. Waking up in the morning was still a pain in the ass. However Max felt some kind of euphoria and fulfillment when one day a small pod leaned in his hand when he had scratched it.

Max was glad no one saw him smiling under his nose.

A few other plants also moved closer to his touch and Max felt accomplished – to this point one day he came here for a few more additional hours to do his homework.

But there was one plant with which Max had problems. It was the Venomous Tentacula. He had always felt some kind of hostility the plant emanated towards him. But to be honest, it didn’t like anyone, beside David, in the end. The Tentacula hadn’t tried to do him any harm on the first day, but kinda had scared Max with a sudden movement of its vines. After that he had been extra careful around it, keeping his distance in case it would try to do something. But it didn’t.

It looked down, really. The leaves were hanging sadly on the branches, swirling around whenever a small gust of wind passed them as Max opened the door, but other than that the Tentacula didn’t move much.

It was kinda sad to look at that.

Max wasn’t sure why he started to speak to it one afternoon. But to be honest the stress was eating at his nerves and he had no one with whom he could talk so openly. And somehow his heart poured so naturally from his mouth.

“I miss him too.” He mumbled, bending the water can and pouring water on soil around the Venomous Tentacula. “I know you would prefer David instead of me, but at least crazy Daniel isn’t the one doing it.” This brought a small smile to his face. “Though I kinda want to see him doing it.”

There was a flutter behind him, something similar to a laughter.

Max snickered under his nose and then moved the water can away. He grabbed a few vials and looked at them. He popped both open and then started to pour the insides on the ground, drop after drop, alternately.

“I also would prefer if he was here, you know? Without his giddy mood it’s kinda empty and lonely here.” Then like an afterthought, he added. “But don’t tell him that.”

The Tentacula didn’t move.

“I miss him walking around here. I miss seeing his dopey smile. I miss the happiness I’m feeling whenever I am around him. I miss him excitedly talking about random things. I miss seeing him almost cry when some student gets a bad grade. I miss his kindness. I miss so many simple things.” Max snorted. “Shit, it’s so stupid of me, pouring my heart out to you.” He added in a whisper, closing his eyes for a brief moment. “Sorry you had to listen to it. I’ll try not to do it in the future.”

The Tentacula still didn’t move and Max didn’t expect it to.

* * *

 

In the afternoon of the last day of the year David still wasn’t back. Max spent the last few hours in the greenhouse, doing his tasks and reading a book. At some point he sensed a movement to his right and saw a few plants bending in his direction.

“Seriously?” Max stared at them with one lifted eyebrow.

They twirled their leaves, pods, and roots, and Max could only sigh in return. He moved his chair closer to them and moved the orb of light closer to himself.

“If you tell anyone that I did this, I will personally cut all of you.”

And he started reading to them.

In the end he spent way too many hours in the greenhouse, to this point he could actually hear the fireworks being sent to the sky. Max had heard about them, but never had seen them. He closed the book and stood up, moving through the greenhouse in search for a perfect place to look at the fireworks from the inside.

He found a neat place from which the sparkly bursts were pretty visible and he stood there, staring at them in kinda childish awe. They shimmered and glimmered nicely in the dark sky, appearing, only to disappear during the next few seconds, leaving only a cloud of smoke and nice memories after themselves.

Oh, David would like them.

Max felt something sliding up his hand – and he had a giant urge to twitch and shake it off, but he knew better not to do that. He only glanced down to see, in the dim light, the Venomous Tentacula’s vine wrapping itself around his wrist and sliding further up his arm.

It didn’t look like it tried to hurt him and more like it sought comfort than anything else.

Max let it slide a few inches higher and then moved his other hand to pat it softly on the vine.

“He’ll be back soon.” He said softly.

Max wasn’t wrong.

* * *

 

Max walked through the grounds, stepping onto the old footprints and holding his hands under his armpits. His breath was coming out in thick, dense puffs, floating around his head.

Tomorrow the school was starting, so both Nikki and Neil should be back today. Well, now it was probably too early for them to be back yet.

But there was a more prominent problem. Or more like a worry. The classes were starting and David wasn’t anywhere in sight.

(And Max had something special for him, a teeny-tiny present he had ordered one evening.)

What if something really terrible had happened to him? Maybe he won’t be back for a few weeks or months? But if that was the case, then crazy Daniel would tell him, right? Max definitely hoped so as he tried to bury the dark thoughts swarming in his mind. He had to stay a little bit positive, but it was so hard. How could David do it almost all the time?

Max took out the keys, picked the right one, put it into the lock, only to find out it wasn’t moving.

What the hell? Had someone broken in? But why? Why would anyone want to steal something from the greenhouse? Besides David’s plant, there weren’t that many important things.

Wait.

With a loudly beating heart Max grabbed the handle, pushed it and opened the door with too much force than probably necessary. But damn, how could he not, when there was a slim chance, a small spark of hope that he would be –

David was inside, holding a giant bucket in both of his hands. When Max so haphazardly entered, the teacher lifted his head and looked at him. And even though Max could see the dark bags under his eyes (so terribly, terrifyingly big), David grinned at him and _oh!_ – everything seemed so much better.

“Hey, Max! Beautiful morning, don’t you think so?”

Max stepped inside, still staring with wide eyes at the man.

“You’re here…” He mumbled.

“I sure am!” David said and then put the bucket away. He raised his hand and brushed his cheek, smearing the dirt there during this process. “Oh no, you had to wake up early today to come here! I’m sorry, I should have informed you somehow.”

Max shook his head, letting out a soft chuckle. He hasn’t even been here for two minutes and David still managed to start worrying about him, even though nothing that bad really had happened.

“You’re impossible.” Max said, raising his hand and combing it through his curls.

“Me?” David asked, tilting his head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I get… what you mean.”

Max shook his head one more time and then moved forward.

“Did you already water the north greenhouse?”

* * *

 

“Max, I missed you!” It was Nikki, almost choking him to death as she had thrown herself at him when he had been in the middle of the dinner.

Max coughed, feeling as the grip on his throat was tightening with every passing second as Nikki brought him closer for a tight hug. He patted her shoulder, hoping that maybe she would free him.

“Nik, he can’t breathe.” Neil said, stopping next to him.

“Oh sorry.” The girl said and then finally moved away.

Max took a deep, sweet, delicious breath, feeling his lungs swelling up. He put his hand on his chest and only then finally turned to them.

“Hey.”

Neil waved with a soft smile tugging on his lips and then flopped down on his right. Nikki swirled and sat on the other side of Max’s.

“How was your sweet break without your parents?” The green haired girl asked, tilting her head. Her hair was tied with the small, red hair ties with tiny, cute reindeers.

For a brief moment Max thought about telling them the truth, but decided against it. At least for now, because he didn’t want to tell his story out loud in the Great Hall, where everyone could hear him. So yeah, this story had to wait for another time.

“Great, and yours?” He said instead.

Nikki jumped into wild stories about her break, filled with snow, sledding, eating cookies, pissing off the neighbor’s dog, and spending hours in front of the TV. Then Neil told him what he had done – and the story definitely wasn’t as exciting as Nikki’s, but it still sounded pleasant – however most of it was filled with homework.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about doing it.” Nikki said at the end.

Neil facepalmed and groaned loudly. Max snickered under his nose.

He liked spending time alone, but spending it with his friends was good too.

* * *

 

Max took a deep breath, fingers tapping rhythmically on the teeny-tiny pot in his hands.

To be honest he kinda felt like vomiting – with his stomach clenching unnaturally and painfully inside his body. He knew it was stupid and he shouldn’t even feel like that, but he couldn’t stop.

Because what if David doesn’t like it? What if Max makes a fool out of himself? What if he –

No, he had to do it. He wanted to do it, even though he was terrified.

Max stepped inside the greenhouse, exhaling slowly and feeling the hot, thick air warming up his skin. Or maybe it was only an explanation he wanted to believe. Because there could be ten thousand other reasons why his cheeks were suddenly so warm.

“Hey, Max, you’re early!” David said, peeking from his office and smiling like the brightest star in the galaxy.

Max felt like he could faint. His tongue seemed like it was made from heavy, dense lead and for a brief moment he couldn’t speak.

But David quickly disappeared back into his office and Max could breathe normally again. Or at least almost normally. His one hand fidgeted and he could feel that it was sweating quite a lot.

Damn, he was nervous.

However David had done so much for him, so it was almost natural to pay the favor back.

So gathering the last few sparks of bravery still roaming around his body, he closed his eyes, inhaled slowly and then moved to David’s office.

The teacher was in the middle of gathering the gardening supplies, when Max cleared his throat.

David straightened his back and glanced at him.

“Everything okay, Max?” He stepped forward, putting the tools away and brushing his gloved hands to get rid of the dirt residing there. “You look kinda stressed.”

For a moment Max lost all coherent thoughts his brain had possessed just a few seconds ago when David looked back at him, with that worried and hesitant smile tugging on his lips. But then Max’s fingers twitched, sensing the smooth structure under them and somehow he found some shadows of words inside his mind.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Max said, patting himself on the back in his mind that he didn’t stutter. “I just… I mean… what you did really means a lot to me –”

David tilted his head and the worried tone in his grin was replaced with kind amusement.

“Yes?”

“And I… I mean…” Fuck, Max was lost, with his eyes jumping around and hands fidgeting in place. He was a disaster. A mess. But he was a mess with a job and he would be damned if he didn’t do it. “Shit, just– It’s for you!” And with that Max pushed a small, potted succulent in David’s direction.

He closed his eyes, but found the curiosity being bigger than any other emotion storming through his chest, so he slowly peeked open his one eye.

David stared with wide eyes at the small pot that was almost touching his chest. He lifted his hands and took the plant from Max’s palms – their hands brushed for a moment and Max’s heart jumped high in his throat – to bring it closer to his face.

“It’s for… me?” David slowly asked, licking his lips first.

Max nodded and only then answered:

“Yeah. Thanks… for everything.”

David opened his mouth and it looked like he wanted to say something, but it all died down when a single tear rolled down his cheek.

What?

Max snapped his head up, only to see the tears gathering in his teacher’s eyes. His heart dropped painfully down, hammering against his chest in some sick, terrific symphony.

“Oh, fuck, sorry Da– Mister David, I didn’t mean to… I mean if you don’t like it, you can throw it away or I don’t know just give it to–”

“I love it.”

“Of course I won’t be ma– Wait, what?”

“I love it, Max.” David whispered, lifted his one hand and softly patting the leaf with the mouth stretching into the happiest smile Max had seen in probably a month. Small, teeny-tiny dimples appeared in the corners, catching a few tears that sometimes streamed down the cheeks.

Max felt his throat constricting and lungs clenching with his stomach making a weird backflip inside his body.

“Really?” Max asked, literally dumbfounded.

David nodded and brought the small plant closer to his face, only to snuggle it to his tear–stained cheek.

“Yeah, it’s the most adorable present I’ve ever got.” Then the teacher blinked and sniffed. “You didn’t have to do it.”

“I know, but…” Max lifted his hand and scratched the back of his head, looking away for a moment. He could sense the heat raising to his cheek and he tried to muster all his body cells to calm down. “… I just wanted to do it.”

David looked up at him, and even though a few drops still rolled down his red cheeks, he looked like the happiest person in the whole word.

“Thanks, Max. I’ll treasure it.”

And somehow Max wasn’t surprised that he fell for David more.

* * *

 

“You did what?” Neil asked, raising his voice.

Max put a finger to his lips and tried to shush the Ravenclaw student a little. They were still in the castle and even though it didn’t look like there were that many people around, they could never be sure who was lurking around.

And the castle was full of too curious and noisy people.

“A little quieter, will you?” Max said, glaring at his friend.

Nikki looked surprised too and to be honest Max was kinda astonished she hadn’t been the one to shriek right now, but Neil. Usually she was the one to excitedly (or not excitedly) react to some news.

And yeah, Max had just told them that he had taken care of David’s greenhouse. Of course he hadn’t told them every detail, but the most important facts from the story.

“Wait, David gave you gloves?” Nikki finally asked, shaking her head first from whatever dreamland she had stepped into.

“Uhm yeah?”

“Dude, my teachers never gave me any presents. Maybe I should get a detention at David’s.” Nikki mumbled, looking up at the ceiling and scratching her chin.

She swayed back on the chair and for a brief moment Max almost saw her flipping back and falling down, but gladly it didn’t happen.

“But just how?” Neil asked, staring at him with bewilderment swirling around his eyes.

Max shrugged.

“I did everything the list said.”

And it was the honest truth. He mostly had done what the sentences written there had pointed him to do. The fact that he had done some additional things didn’t need to be said.

“But like… by yourself? No one forced you to do it?”

Max’s brow twitched.

“Is it so hard to believe?”

“I mean, kinda –”

“Neil, it’s because it was David.” Nikki butted into the conversation, grinning from ear to ear like a madman and glancing a few times at Max with that malicious glint.

Okay, you know what? On the other hand, he loved the peace without his friends in the castle. Especially right now.

Neil blinked and then glanced at the green haired girl. There was a sudden snap in his façade and the surprise immediately disappeared, replaced by full understatement.

“Oh yeah, now it makes sense.”

Yeah, now Max really was astonished how he could had missed them in the first place.

* * *

 

It was a calm afternoon filled with soft brushes of leaves moving in the greenhouse, delicate light coming from the candles and spells floating above their heads and warm hums coming from David’s lips.

It was one of those afternoons, when a lone thought invaded Max’s mind. Lately more often and often he had to brush it away, sweep it under a carpet, and hide it behind the door.

Although that said he started to like doing it. He started to like spending time in the greenhouse. He started to enjoy the company of the colorful plants, which lately started to turn to him and touch his skin. He started to find peace in the atmosphere and mostly in the presence near him.

He liked spending time with David.

And it was dangerous.

Of course, in the past he had had detention with David, but they had been shorter and he had still been a kid – kinda confused with his feelings that had swarmed his mind and heart back then.

And now he was older, turning into an adult in just a few days.

Oh, right, his birthday. It wasn’t that far away. It was even too close in Max’s opinion.

Max didn’t really like his birthday. Or to be more precise he often forgot about it. He didn’t understand why people made such a big deal out of it. Or at least he had thought so until he had met Nikki and Neil – for whom not celebrating the birthdays was a grave sin.

But even Max had to admit that this year was different. Because this year he will become an adult. Or well, at least this was what the wizarding world’s laws said.

(There was some small spark of enthusiasm inside his chest, but Max tried really hard to forget about it.)

And on such a normal, calm, peaceful and beautiful afternoon David dropped the bomb.

“Max?”

The teen hummed and then sprayed another leave with a mixture of some potions. Gladly David understood that he was listening and continued:

“You know… you helped me a lot nowadays and I thought that maybe we should shorten your detention?”

Max literally slipped, while standing, and almost crashed face first into the Valerians he was spraying. The flowers fluttered under his force. Gladly he somehow caught himself in time.

“W-what?” Max stuttered, looking back, only to find David staring back at him.

“I mean… you worked so hard through the whole detention and then you helped me during the Christmas break, so I thought it would be fair to let you off the hook earlier.”

But stopping the detention earlier meant stopping meeting David so often and, damn, that thought, that lone, terrible thought made Max’s insides squeeze painfully, twisting and curling like they were put under the _Incarcerous Spell_.

Max stared intently at the teacher to the point David blinked and then looked away, hesitantly with hands brought closer to his chest, fiddling with the small shovel resting in his palms. The eyes which had leaped to the floor, returned to stare back at Max unsurely.

“You don’t want that?”

No. Max didn’t want that. But _the Max_ David knew would never say that. _The Max_ David probably was familiar with would grab the first chance with both hands to run away from this place. _The Max_ would grin at that idea and then bid farewell, while exiting the door, not even letting David finish.

But he… he didn’t want that.

What to do, what to do, how to plan his next movement to not accidentally shorten his detention? Oh God, even Max couldn’t believe he was thinking about it. Why was he acting so weird around David? Why could this man make Max do things he wouldn’t normally do! Like trying hard to make someone happy!? Or care for some plants? Or be happy after simply seeing someone!?

Why!?

But, God, he didn’t want to stop it. Max didn’t want to stop seeing that smile which made him all warm inside. He didn’t want to stop hearing this delicate, kind voice around him. He didn’t want to stop the heavy beating of his heart – that felt so alive and full and vivid and amazing.

“No.” Max finally said. “I almost destroyed the corridor I… I deserve it.” Though that wasn’t the full truth, but it was the closest to it, the closest to the truth that could make David change his mind. “Plus I don’t think Mister Daniel will agree.” He had a horrific habit of making Max’s life miserable for his own amusement and fun.

“I’m sure, if I talk with him –“

“No, it’s okay I don’t…” Max licked his lips. “I don’t mind.”

David blinked and then the gentle smiled surged onto his mouth, wavering a little, but holding strongly in the end nevertheless.

“O-okay, if that’s what you want.”

Max shrugged, trying not to show that this was exactly what he wanted, and returned to his work.

* * *

 

“Where is Neil?” Max asked, breathing at his hands to try to warm them up a little bit.

“Uhm… he went to some shop to buy uhm… a cauldron?” Nikki, next to him, mumbled, casting her gaze away with a hesitant smile tugging at her lips.

Suspicious.

The two of them walked through the snowy streets of Hogsmeade, maneuvering around students and other people who also visited this place. The happy chatters floated above the crowd, mingling with shouts and chirps of birds perched on the nearest branches. A man and woman on the right were arguing loudly about the prices of eel’s eyes that were staring at the people passing them by. On the left two lone boys were standing with their noses and cheeks glued to the window of Honeydukes, surrounded by the heavenly smell.

Max sighed and looked up at the gray sky. Damn, not enough sun today. He wondered if David moved the Flitterblooms so they would get enough sunlight. But knowing this guy, this was probably the first thing he had done today morning. Oh, wait, the drying petals probably should be moved –

Max felt a heavy tug and stepped away, missing being stomped by a horse.

“Watch out!” Nikki shouted, way too late.

If she didn’t drag him away, Max would actually be lying under the horse’s hooves, probably also in pain.

“Oh, sorry, got lost in my thoughts.” Max mumbled.

“Yeah, I can see. I fucking hope that they were filled with David at least.”

“Louder, Nikki.”

“I hope they were fi–“

In this very moment Max slapped his hand over Nikki’s mouth, silencing her.

“That wasn’t a challenge.”

The girl grinned and then licked his hand, leaving a wet, disgusting trail of saliva on his skin.

“Yuck! Nikki!”

Max brushed his hand on her coat and then both of them entered the Three Broomsticks.

Neil appeared almost forty minutes later, trying and failing miserably to hide a package that was clearly sticking out from his backpack. Max eyed it suspiciously and only hummed in reply to Neil’s greeting, taking a few big sips of a butterbeer standing in front of him.

Nikki already had finished two mugs.

“What were you doing?” Max asked instead, from behind his mug.

“Buying new quills, ink and parchment.”

Max hummed in reply, glancing at the girl. He didn’t point out the obvious fact that their stories were different. Of course he could, but why should he? They had to have their reasons to not tell the full truth to him, and Max, even though he didn’t like it, respected it. To some point that was.

Plus something told him that it had to do with the package in Neil’s bag, standing secure between his legs, so no one would focus on it too hard or try to take a peek.

Damn, at first Max wasn’t interested in it, but when Neil tried to hide it so hard he kinda was curious what was inside.

But till the end of their Hogsmeade trip Max hadn’t once been able to even get a look from where the package had come from.

It was so irritating!

* * *

 

“I don’t think it was your fault.” David suddenly said, without any sign that he was going to suddenly start speaking.

Max glanced at him and then moved the cup away from his mouth.

“What wasn’t my fault?” Max asked, having no idea what his teacher was babbling about.

To be honest Max had no idea about most of the things David was talking about. Most of which were related to the Muggle world. There were times when David would suddenly jump into long talks about this or that – like, what the heck even was an Apple phone? Max had no idea, but David could talk for almost half an hour about the differences between it and An… An–something.

(Max liked listening to David, seeing him so openly talking about random things, especially after the break.)

But this was on a whole other level.

“The fight.” David said, glancing down at the cup of tea he had in his hands. “I mean the one that gave you this detention. Not all the other ones.”

Max snorted and put his own cup away, next to the gloves David had given him.

“I did destroy the corridor.” He stated, lifting his one leg and resting the ankle on the knee. “Or almost destroyed.”

“I know, but…” David swirled the cup in his hand. “I don’t think you would do it without a reason.”

Max smirked under his nose, rested his elbow on the table next to him, only to put his chin on his palm and glance at the teacher sitting next to him.

“Like what?” He asked.

He kinda expected to play a little game with David – with the teacher trying to guess the correct answer and Max denying every one, simply because he didn’t expect David to even guess right.

Yet the man did, on the very first try.

“Like you wanted to protect someone.”

Max’s heart hammered loudly and his chin almost slipped from the palm, but he gladly and miraculously somehow remained in his place, not doing much beside twitching, which definitely had to give him away.

David looked at him.

“What happened?” He asked, staring right into Max’s eyes and damn –

David could break every wall Max had put around himself. He could in mere seconds destroy every barrier put in front of Max’s mind. He could smash to pieces every resolution Max had in himself.

Max swallowed hard, feeling as his stomach churned under this gaze, with his heart playing a symphony inside his skull.

“You know, the usual. Wizards from magical families bullying people from not fully magical ones.” He stated.

David blinked.

“But you are–“

Max quickly closed his eyes and shook his head slowly.

“Not me. But…”

Should he say the truth? But wizards teasing other people due to their blood relations wasn’t anything new. It was happening around the whole castle every day. Max never had offended anyone because of their ancestry, simply because he didn’t give a flying fuck about such stupid shit.

But some people did.

And during that day it had been one of the worse encounters.

“… Nikki.” Max finally said, glancing away for a second. “I guess it was just a bad day for everyone. Pikeman and his stupid friends stopped us and started insulting her. Usually those things don’t get to her, but that day… they kinda did. So I gave them a piece of my mind, which they didn’t like and well…”

He remembered the anger surging through his veins as he had listened to their venomous and spiteful words. Oh how much he had wanted to strangle them, to grip their necks and choke hard. How much he had wanted to make them scream in fear. How much he had wanted to make them pay for what they had said and done.

Maybe Max sometimes acted bad, maybe he sometimes forgot about anniversaries, maybe there were times when he said something mean to his friends without meaning to do so. He had made so many mistakes, errors. He had tripped so many times on the road of trying to be a friend. He had done so many things that he would change right now.

But he wouldn’t change his friends.

And he didn’t regret what he had done that night.

“Were you…” David licked his lip nervously. “… the first one to attack?”

“No.” Max quickly said. “Niksslip did. He casted _Confringo_.” There was an audible gasp coming from his right. “But missed.”

“Max, they should be gravely punished for what they did!” David almost shrieked with hand moving to his mouth. “Such kinds of spells shouldn’t be cast at each other in the castle!”

Max shrugged.

“Then you don’t know about half of the things which are happening around the castle when the teachers aren’t looking.”

David stood up suddenly.

“I need to talk about it with Daniel.” And with that he marched to the exit.

Or well he would do it, if Max’s hand didn’t shoot forward and catch his wrist, preventing him from moving further.

“Dav– Mister David, no.” Max said, raising his head and staring at the red haired teacher.

“Max, they need to be punished for what they did. I– I can’t allow students to get hurt! I can’t allow them to feel like they don’t belong here when they do!” David whimpered, trying to break his hand free and get to the door.

“Now there is nothing you can do. You can only make things worse.” Max said with his mouth pinched in a tight line, frowning at David who was struggling to escape the grip.

“But I have to do something!” David tugged harshly, but Max did too.

“You can’t.” Max said, raising his voice maybe too high, definitely having a tone that was inappropriate while talking with teachers, but he didn’t care. “It all happened a few months ago. We all healed and moved on. There is no use in going back and opening old wounds.”

David stopped struggling and lifted his face a little to stare at Max.

Something in David’s disheartened façade broke Max’s heart, made his breath stop in the middle of his throat, made him choke on this little bit of oxygen still residing in his lungs.

(He hated that look.)

Max loosened his grip on David’s wrist and with some fear noticed that the skin there turned pink. He kinda expected the man to retrieve his hand quickly, maybe even dart to the exit, but nothing like this happened. David was still staring at him with this devastated and miserable look on his face.

It didn’t fit him.

“Besides I think I punished them enough. They will definitely remember my _Fiendfyre_ for some time.” Max slowly said, putting a mischievous smile on his lips, hoping and praying that this way he could –

Oh, David chuckled. He laughed softly under his nose, closing his eyes and barely moving his shoulder.

It was a sweet sound, which tickled Max’s chest and made him breathe once again, filling his lungs with delicious air.

They stayed like that for a few seconds, with Max holding David’s wrist and the teacher not moving away, when the male opened his mouth once again.

“You did it again.” He said softly, voice barely above a whisper.

“Did what?” Max asked, raising his one eyebrow, not sure what the other one meant.

“Almost called me by my first name.”

Oh shit.

“I’m sorry–“ Max quickly jumped to excusing himself, apologizing for the slip, but he was even faster interrupted by David’s giggles.

“No, don’t worry. I don’t mind.” He said, opening his eyes and staring at him. “I kinda like it.”

Max’s heart beat loudly as he snapped his head up and looked back at David who was smiling softly back at him. He could hear it resonating in his ears. He could hear it hammering almost painfully in his chest. He could almost hear it echoing on the glassy walls of the greenhouse.

He was almost sure David and every plant here could hear it.

David slowly retracted his hand.

“We should get back to work. We need to cut Aconites’ roots to dry them!”

It took Max a few seconds or maybe minutes to collect himself.

* * *

 

It was a day like any other.

Or at least Max thought it would be a day like any other. Because it started normally. He woke up, went to wash himself, put on more or less clean clothes, grabbed a few essentials for the morning classes and then slowly walked through the Slytherin common room to the Great Hall to eat much needed breakfast.

It was a day like any other.

Not counting the colorful streamers which were suddenly blown into his face, coming from both sides as he literally just sat down. The green, red, blue and yellow papers swirled for a few seconds around his head, blocking any way of seeing who actually had shot him – but he didn’t need to see to know who it was.

Nikki and Neil. It had to be them. They were the only crazy ones who could have done that.

But why? Did they want to murder him by making him choke on the small bits and pieces of paper fluttering around and now even getting into his mouth?

“What the fuck?” Max mumbled, trying to get the glittery scraps from his eyes. Shit, noisy little fuckers, getting stuck in places they shouldn’t even be touching.

And then he felt something being put on his head, messing up his black curls. And only when he managed to get the last few bits of  the rainbow colored paper off his face, he could fully see what was happening around him.

Nikki was grinning from ear to ear at him with Neil standing next to her, who also looked well… happy, but kinda hesitantly happy. Almost like he expected Max to suddenly draw his wand and cast _Expelliarmus_. But they weren’t the only people here. There were also those two nerds from Ravenclaw with whom Max occasionally talked – Nerris and Harrison. There was also the other Neil – a tiny Hufflepuff, smiling at him, holding a ripped piece of paper. And of course, the most annoying of them all, Preston. Why was Nikki hanging with him anyway? Ah yeah, the same house and all that shit.

Max stared at them, eyeing everyone individually, until they opened their mouths and shouted:

“Happy Birthday!”

Oh.

Max stared at them, kinda pissed, kinda surprised and kinda – also – pleased.

Because they remembered.

And Max totally forgot. Yet again.

Max had to stare at them for a good minute, because they all started to look at each other nervously, whispering some questions and shrugging in replies.

“Did we get the wrong date?” The other Neil asked, standing on his tiptoes to whisper into Nerris’ ear.

“No, I think it’s the right one.” The girl answered, though she hesitantly glanced at Nikki and Neil.

“We got it right. Don’t worry, Max always acts like that.” Neil said, looking at them and pushing his glasses higher with a paper tube he had in his hands.

Max reached, grabbed a small piece of a tomato and flung it at his friend, who surprisingly dodged in time and the fruit hit a head of a random student behind Neil.

Max would say that he felt bad, but he didn’t.

“And he’s back.” Neil murmured, apologizing then to the person assaulted by Max’s tomato.

“Fuck you.”

Neil smiled at him, shaking his head softly.

“You may be an adult, but you’ll never change.”

Max grinned.

* * *

 

This day was the same as any other, yet it was different for a whole other reason.

Everyone sat at the table with him and ate breakfast, talking irrepressibly about everything and nothing in particular. Nerris gave him the enchanted dices – that were rolling the number he would think about or close, so he could cheat. Harrison gave him a colorful cube that will definitely waste Max’s endless hours while he will try to solve it. The other Neil gave him a book which described every constellation – poor guy probably thought Max was interested in them, but to be honest Max only had needed help with his homework. So that’s why he had asked the other Neil about the stars. Preston probably beat everyone by giving him the dark glasses that, while being on a nose, would cast an illusion that he had a beard.

So even though the presents were lame, Max really loved each and every one of them.

Near the end of the breakfast, his family owl dropped a small package in front of him, together with a letter. But Max liked his good mood, so he only threw the present into his room before going to classes and deciding to check what his parents had sent him later.

Much later.

Through the day a few of his friends also wished him a happy birthday. Even a few teachers gave him best wishes while passing him in the corridor. Some even let him slack off a little bit.

The dinner and afternoon classes were spent in the same cheerful atmosphere.

Max simply felt happy, with the joy bubbling inside his chest and spreading to his limbs, overpowering his mind, to this point it was sometimes hard to maintain his usual emotionless façade.

(He felt like maybe his life wasn’t that bad. He had good people around him, who loved and cherished him, so… yeah, it wasn’t that bad.)

Max felt like nothing could destroy this day.

Life had a funny way of doing exactly that.

* * *

 

“And this is a present… from us!”

Max eyed the package suspiciously, but after a few seconds he grabbed it and brought it closer to himself. He got rid of the sparkling paper surrounding it and was met with a simple brown box underneath it.

Nikki gleamed at him, but Neil looked kinda nervous. Or very nervous. His hand fidgeted as he corrected his glasses, pushing them higher on his nose.

Max opened the package to stare at… a blue sweater. It had to be hand–knitted, because the material was uneven in some places and crooked in others. But it was a sweater, made from the warmest wool he had ever felt – and the best written message at the very front.

(He had actually said it a few times in his life. _Me? Sarcastic? Never!_ )

Max grabbed the sweater and took it out, only to see that beneath it there were at least seven more balls of yarn, two pairs of new needles and a frame. A plain white frame. But this single pearly white frame held a picture of the three of them, smiling at the camera. Or Neil and Nikki were smiling, Max was simply pleased.

They had made it during the vacation after their third year, when Max had run away from his home to crash at Neil’s house for a week.

That time had been a blast.

And yeah, maybe the present wasn’t much. Maybe it was childish, kinda stupid for some people or just too cheesy, but Max could feel a soft, prickling sensation in the corners of his eyes.

“Uh, the mistakes are mostly my fault. Knitting is not my thing.” Neil said, scratching his shoulder and staring everywhere, but at Max.

“This is the worst present I ever got.” Max mumbled, then took off his robe, put on the most disgusting (amazing) sweater and threw his dark robe back on his shoulders.

“I think he likes it.”

Max decided not to answer, instead he palmed the material in his fingers, smiling stupidly at the soft sensation under his skin.

They sat on the wooden stairs directing them to the Clock Tower and talked about small things, unimportant things, important and difficult topics, putting in a few jokes from time to time and even sharing some deep secrets.

It was an amazing day.

But everything good had to come to an end.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

Oh, Max immediately felt blood boiling inside his veins, storming through them with brute force.

“Fuck off, Pikeman.” Max snarled, looking up the stairs at the very center of his hatred.

The said teen indeed stood there, staring down at them with his chin darted up.

“Well you’re standing in my way. And I want to walk down the stairs.” The male said, glancing at them and furrowing his eyebrows.

But of course he wasn’t alone. His two dumb friends had to be with him. Niksslip and Petrol.

“There is a lot of space next to us for your fat asses to walk down.”

Maybe Max shouldn’t be so hostile right now, but the memories of the last fight were still vivid in his brain, were still swirling in his mind, were still reappearing in his nightmares, because what if he had been just a second too late, one small movement too short, one thought too slow –

Nikki glared at the trio, hand moving to her waist to rest protectively on her wand. Neil looked disinterested, but his hand was also close to his weapon. Even though the Ravenclaw was a major nerd, in dire times he didn’t hesitate. And Nikki… Nikki was simply reckless.

Pikeman snorted in reply, but obediently started to walk down the stairs with his two friends following his every step.

They eyed each other suspiciously.

Max could feel the thick atmosphere on his lips, the electricity and anger swirling in the air between them. It looked like it only needed a small spark and then everything would start to burn.

His heart beat so loud, so spastically inside his ribcage, banging vehemently on his ribs. Max unclenched his fist (which he didn’t know he had tightened) to relax it for a second, so he was ready to attack at any moment.

Pikeman, Niksslip and Petrol passed them and Max found pleasure in a sight of a scar on Pikeman’s face, which he was sure he had given him during the last fight.

Served him well.

“How is your detention going?” Pikeman suddenly asked, stopping next to Max and staring at him with hands behind his back.

Max couldn’t see the wand and wondered if it was already being held.

“Good. How is your pride?”

The red haired – so so different color from David’s warm one – male’s eyebrow twitched as he glared down at Max, who still sat on the stairs.

“Definitely better than your style.”

Billy snorted, but Petrol looked unfazed.

Max furrowed his eyebrows and his hand moved to the hip, but he held strongly.

“I don’t think you should be talking about style with a face like yours.”

This time it was Nikki’s turn to giggle. Neil simultaneously moved his palm to grab the handle of his wand.

There was a twitch in Pikeman’s body and Max was sure that he would attack, would draw his wand to cast something, anything, but everything remained in the thick air between them.

Pikeman didn’t move forward though, he remained in his position, almost beside Max but still one or two steps higher.

“Hilarious, Maxwell.”

Max smirked, like he just received a compliment.

But the boy didn’t stop talking, he didn’t stop to think that maybe it was all wrong to say or even mention. Or maybe he did that only to rile Max, to make him angry, to make him furious, to make him want to jump to his feet and kill the person right in front of him.

“But please do tell me if Mister David is any good in bed. I may know a few people that would want to check those suspicions.”

Max felt like he was burning. Like he was sizzling with fire under his skin that wanted to explode and hurt the person standing right in front of him. He wanted to scream and throw himself at the male and strangle him and see the color drain from his face. He wanted to see Pikeman’s face twisting in agony with the fear rippling through his eyes.

Max wanted to see it all with his own eyes. But David would probably move past all of those bad things thrown at him, he would welcome them with a smile stretched over his lips and warm words.

So Max remained in his place, glaring at Pikeman with the hatred he felt emanating from every part of his body.

The boy had to know that he had hit a sensitive spot, because he continued.

“Oh, why such an angry face?” The prolonged words hung in the air, slicing through it with perfect precision. “Are you jealous? Oh poor little Maxey! What? Even the good David didn’t want you? But it’s not surprising –“ There was a dry chuckle leaving his lips. “– who would want a fuck up like you, right?”

It hurt. It hurt like hell. But Max decided he wouldn’t budge. Or at least not in the physical way.

“Well, your mother found someone.” Max said, quickly searching for the perfect words to use here. “So I think I have a high chance actually in comparison –”

“You –“

Pikeman moved, together with his two friends behind. Hands were pushing away the folds of the robes to grab the wands –

Surprisingly they weren’t the first to attack.

Well maybe _attack_ was too big word to describe this moment.

Surprisingly it was Neil who did it. But he didn’t take out his wand. No, no. He did something else. He reached into his pocket, took out something glittery and then threw it at the trio that was already shouting some words under their breaths.

They were enveloped in a cloud of pink, glittery streamers.

“Run!” Neil shouted.

No one had to be told twice. Max grabbed his package and they all ran down the stairs as fast as their legs could take them.

Max could hear loud curses coming from behind them and when he glanced back, he saw the puff of pink dust dissipating. Pikeman’s face was red, blaring red, as he lifted his hand and cast a spell. Max wasn’t sure what spell, but the only thing he knew was that it was too dangerous.

And yeah, fluttery, white light exploded near his head, leaving black, scorching soot on the stone wall.

Shit, it was bad.

“Run, run, run!” Max yelled, ushering his friend out the door while he grabbed the wand from his belt.

Only when Nikki and Neil were outside, Max glanced back. The trio were running down the stairs, glaring at them, all with wands in their hands. Max didn’t have enough time to think thoroughly about the consequences of his actions as he casted an _Impediment Jinx_.

This time he didn’t destroy anything, only slowed the trio down. But not for long.

Max jumped out of the building. They had maybe a few seconds or so. Not enough to get to the main part of the castle, but enough to hide.

They all searched for a perfect place, gasping and huffing loudly. Max felt the passing time on his skin as his eyes desperately searched for some safe hideout. And after five or so blissful seconds, Nikki pointed at a small, partially destroyed niche. Most of the walls were destroyed, with pieces of concrete lying on the ground. But at least half of it was still standing.

Plus it was in the direction of their escape.

The tree of them ran to the niche and hid behind a half–broken wall, crouching down, so not even an inch of their body would be visible.

Max could hear his heart inside his ears, beating loudly and almost stopping when he picked up the sound of the door to the Clock Tower bursting open.

“Where are you!?”

Well Max definitely wasn’t going to answer this question. And it looked like Neil and Nikki didn’t really want to raise their hands either.

They could hear the steps outside, shuffling around the grounds in front of the tower, muttering curses to each other. There was a brief silence and then someone cast a spell, causing a small explosion of rocks nearby. Too close for comfort.

And Max suddenly thought that maybe their hideaway was the worst option here. Because if they found them, Max and his friends would have no place to run. They would have to duel – something Max didn’t really want to do right now.

Because, to be honest, Pikeman and the rest were all a year higher than them and knew some highly offensive and dangerous spells. And Max didn’t want to see his friends getting or being hurt.

Why oh why had he opened his mouth!? Maybe Pikeman was right. Maybe Max was a fuck up. Maybe he was a mess. His friends were in danger and it was Max’s fault. They shouldn’t suffer because of his stupid mistakes and even stupider choices.

Max took a deep breath when he heard the ground rumbling too close for comfort.

As much as Max could he turned around to Neil and Nikki and whispered.

“Wait a little bit and then run.”

Neil was the first one to shake himself from the shock.

“Max, what are you –“

But Max didn’t hear the rest of the reply, as he jumped to his feet and leaped from their hiding place, leaving his present and friends behind. Miraculously, Pikeman and his band didn’t look in his direction so he had a few additional seconds to run through the ground and get away from the hideout.

“Hey dumbfuck!” Max shouted, holding a wand tightly in his palm.

The three of them immediately turned to him. Hands were put into motion, raised up to the sky and there was a soft glint of light –

Max wanted to say more, to rile Pikeman a little bit more, but it looked like he didn’t need to.

Now he needed to get the hell out of here and hope, pray, that his friends will be okay.

So Max ran. He ran through the school grounds, feeling the cold winter air moving through his veins and the wind swishing past him, messing with his clothes and hair. It was so chilly, so freezing outside, but he barely felt it, with the adrenaline rushing through him and a few explosions appearing too close to him for comfort. The white snow crunched under him with every step he took – faster, faster, faster, far away, as far as he could – it was a sick cacophony inside his ears.

Max felt like he could faint, but he pushed his body to the limits, he forced his legs to move even though they were heavy and he was so so tired. But he miraculously still managed to jump over a stone fence and then tumble for a second on the ground.

(Faster, faster, faster, further away from the danger!)

“I’ll kill you!”

Max had no doubt that it could happen.

He had no time to glance back to see how many of them was following him, but judging by the heavy sound of footsteps definitely more than one. The sparkling, bursting spells quite confirmed his suspicions.

Oh, if he and his friends get out unscathed from this chase, Max will start listening during Potions. He will even answer Daniel’s questions, without being forced to! He won’t even wait till the last day to finish his essay.

He will do all of it!

Max felt like his lungs could collapse, like his heart could jump out of his hurt chest. But step after step he was getting away from the people behind him with their footsteps becoming some kind of background noises.

But he still needed a place to hide! A place to lay low for a few more minutes.

Max lifted his head, looking around for the first time in like forever and unfortunately he noticed that, even though he was dumb as fuck, his mind was miraculously even dumber.

(Or maybe it was too smart.)

Because he, of course, ran to the greenhouse.

Max had no other options, so he jumped to the front door and prayed hard with all his heart that it will be open.

It was.

Max wanted to scream in joy, but the only thing he did was fling the door open. After glancing back, he literally stormed inside. It took him two or maybe three steps, still looking back at the door he had shut down with too much force, to crash into someone.

They tumbled down to the floor, yelping. Max heard a small shout in front of him. There were movements, small kicks and pushes, there was sudden darkness and Max’s clothes fluttered around him, a small whimper of pain, a blurry vision jumping in and out of focus, before Max’s mind could fully process what had happened. Or tried to fully process what had happened.

“I’ll kill you, Maxwell!” Came a shout from the outside, too close for comfort.

Max’s brain acted on an impulse. His wand moved, making the lock in the main door move, blocking the pathway in and making all the candles inside the greenhouse die immediately, engulfing them in darkness. When the footsteps, running ones, came too close to the greenhouse, Max grabbed the body in front of him, or whatever part he could actually grab, and rolled them both weirdly and painfully under the table, pushing away the pots and smearing dirt around.

It wasn’t the perfect cover, but it was the best thing they could have now.

Max’s breathed hard. He felt his chest moving heavily up and down. He could sense his heart running wildly in his chest, trying to work properly to get the needed oxygen to his veins and organs. He could feel a weird pulsation in the back of his skull.

“Max, what is wrong?” David asked, his hot, but quiet breath tickled the skin near Max’s cheek.

Because yes, Max had the worst luck in the entire universe. Yes, he had crashed into David face first after entering the greenhouse. Yes, he had made both of them fall down on the dirty and rough ground. And yes, he had rolled them under the table to hide from the chase.

And now David was lying on the crummy ground under him, while Max prepped himself on his elbows above the teacher.

The situation couldn’t get any worse.

But of course it could.

“Max?” David repeated himself, wiggling a little beneath him and trying to move the hand which rested between him and Max, quite uncomfortably probably. “What is happening?”

“Shh…” Max shushed him and then glanced at the door.

There was a short span of time where nothing happened, a blissful two seconds or so, where Max hoped that maybe Pikeman gave up.

But the doorknob wiggled and then a loud thud resonated in the air, when someone probably punched the door.

“We know you’re there!”

Max wanted to curse. He wanted to scream and shout. He wanted to punch and kick and kill someone. He wanted to do all of those things, but he couldn’t do even a single one.

David’s breath hitched in his throat – it was weird, but Max could feel the movement reverberating inside his body. He could even sense David’s chest moving up, only to stop for a second.

“Don’t hide there!” The handle moved again, but this time too the lock kept them at bay.

Max swallowed hard, tightening his grip on the wand and glancing at the door. Even though the table was giving them half cover, they probably would still be pretty visible from the sides, especially from the window. It will probably take Pikeman and the rest a second to notice them. Or at least to notice Max who was above.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was a short span of calmness and then the footsteps moved to the side. The glassy side!

(No, no, no, no, no!)

Max felt his heart leaping painfully in his throat when he glanced to the side. Maybe if he ran through the back door, David would be safe and Max would only spend a few weeks in the Hospital Wing.

Max could feel air on his cheeks, a soft murmur leaving David’s lips, a shuddering resonance in his chest almost glued to his teacher’s one. There was a beat when nothing happened. Then Max could hear a flutter of something moving, a swishing sound of sneaking around, a tiny whisper of leaves quivering.

Then slowly, step after step, the image of the glassy side was blocked by the giant leaves, vines and tentacles moving around, intertwining, hanging or interlocking.

Max could only stare in awe as the plants moved, swirled, maneuvered, twirled and intertwined together to form something resembling a curtain – a green, beautiful, vivid curtain which would hide them from the outside world.

“Thanks.” David whispered.

And not even a second later they could hear loud footsteps behind the glass wall. Max could even see shadows moving behind the windows, but most of them were blocked by the plants, leaves and vines.

“Damn it! I can’t see a thing inside!” Pikeman yelled – Max could recognize this voice anywhere.

It seemed like the teen glued his face to the window, if the sounds were any indication.

“All I can see are those stupid plants.” Another voice added. It was Billy, definitely.

So Petrol was left with Nikki and Neil. They could take on one guy. Max believed in them.

David’s chest stopped moving as he stared at the glassy side. Max couldn’t see much in front of him, but he had a feeling that David furrowed his eyebrows.

“Fuck, we should burn them some day.”

Yeah, it was definitely a frown, followed by a clench of the fist still squeezed between their bodies.

“Do you think he’s here?”

Max stopped breathing.

“I’m not fucking sure. I think I saw him going in here, but it’s so fucking dark outside!”

The only source of light was the moon hanging low on the sky.

Max moved a little, trying to find a comfortable position between them, and he only managed to brush his body on David.

Not a good idea!

“Damn him. I’ll kill him the next time I see him.” Pikeman shouted and then it looked and sounded like he kicked the wall, because the glass shuddered heavily.

The leaves fluttered unhappily, but other than that they didn’t move.

“Let’s go. Some teacher could see us. Maybe Petrol had more luck.”

There was a short pause when nothing happened and then Max could hear a soft crunching of snow beneath the moving away feet.

“I swear, if I see…” But the words mingled and mixed together, forming a gibberish something which disappeared in the dark night around them, followed only by a faraway sound of laughter.

Max waited for a few more seconds, before he let out a loud breath through his mouth and nose.

Miraculously he was safe. Somehow.

There were another few heartbeats of silence when he listened intently to any other sounds that could indicate that they were back, but nothing like this happened. The leaves only fluttered above them and the vines twitched, retracting slowly to their previous place.

“Max… what the heck was that?” David whispered.

And only then Max finally managed to look back at the person in front of him? Below him? Being squished between him and a probably very cold floor?

And even though the adrenaline had been moving furiously through his body, now it felt like it stopped and then spurted once again.

“Eh…” Max licked his lips slowly and then glanced to the side. How should he answer? Should he tell the truth or lie? But he got David pretty deep into it, so… “Pikeman?”

“That didn’t answer my question.” David furrowed his eyebrows, wriggling his fingers that were between his and Max’s chest.

“You know… the usual happened…”

“The usual?” David said, huffed even. “Did you get into another fight?”

“To be more precise, I was running away from a fight.” Max quickly added, barely pushing the words through his throat.

“Max, what happened?” David asked, looking up, tilting his head just _oh so_ slightly that Max could almost see his own reflection in the green, lush eyes.

“Pikeman and his gang decided to bug us. A few not quite nice sentences were thrown at each other and suddenly we found ourselves running away from them.”

David gasped, opening his mouth a little. The gust of hot air brushed past Max’s face.

“Max, we need to tell the principal!”

“So they could bug us even more?” Max quickly shot back, raising his eyebrow and lifting one corner of his mouth.

“But if they are bugging other students –” David shifted beneath him, but Max actually didn’t move, didn’t budge, didn’t twitch even an inch.

“Telling the principal will make the matter worse for some students. Did you think that there was no bullying around the school? Well then I have some bad news for you.” Max snorted back. “It is happening. Telling the principal won’t do shit and you can only harm someone by doing it.”

David was already opening his mouth – and _oh_ how Max wanted to close it, to finish this pointless argument that was taking them nowhere. He wanted to end it. He wanted to shut David up. He wanted–

Max’s heart shuddered in his chest as he sensed another soft movement beneath him, as he felt another scent hitting his nose, as he heard another whisper of rustling clothes.

Max’s throat was dry.

He should move away, but he couldn’t. He felt like he was petrified.

The air around them was thick, heavy, but filled with something that was almost buzzing in his ears.

And then David’s mouth moved, turned into a small, hesitant smile and a low, kinda dry chuckle left his lips.

“You’re actually pretty caring, Max.”

“What?” Max snapped.

“You could simply let me tell the principal and you would be free. But you don’t want to do that so you won’t harm other people.” David said with sparkling eyes. “That is very noble.”

Max stared for a few long seconds, before he snorted loudly, right into David’s face at this point.

“I’m far away from being noble, David.”

Oh, he did it again. The name so naturally slipped past his lips. Max knew why this was happening. He often used teachers’ first names while talking with his friends, but he controlled himself around the real teachers. But with David there were times – short, small spaces and spans of intimacy – when Max’s brain couldn’t function properly, when it felt like reality was altered.

This was one of those moments, when even though Max had feared for his life a few minutes ago, now he felt at peace, calm and simply, kinda, happy.

David didn’t comment on the slip. Or at least not verbally. The corner of his lip twitched a little though and he tilted his head, making one lock curl on his forehead, and miraculously, somehow, moving closer to Max.

“I still think you’re kind, Max.”

Max wasn’t kind. But, God, he wanted to be. Nikki was kind. Neil was kind. His other friends were kind. Gwen was kind. David was kind beyond understanding. And Max kinda hated it, because spending time with David made him want to be a better person. And he was terrible at this. He couldn’t so naturally do something nice. He was a mess at this. It was all too hard and Max was so, so tired.

Max wasn’t a nice person.

“I’m not.” He said, feeling his heart thrumming loudly inside his chest as he sensed David breathing with him in synchronization.

“You are.” David said, grinning at him, like it was some weird, childish game. And damn, he looked so sincere, he spoke without even a particle of hesitation, like he fully believed his own words.

Max really wanted to believe them too. But they weren’t true and he knew that.

“No, I’m not. Just stop.”

Stop making him almost believe it.

“You can’t make me stop.” David said, a hint of childish bravado hanging on the last tone.

But Max could. He could make David stop believing it.

Because Max wasn’t a good person, no matter how hard he wanted to be or believe it.

And maybe it was the exhaustion hanging tightly on his bones, maybe it was the adrenaline still rushing through his veins, maybe it was the memory of almost being caught and killed.

Or maybe it wasn’t that.

Maybe it was the whole atmosphere of the greenhouse. Maybe it was the soft whisper of the leaves above him. Maybe it was the sensation of feeling David’s breath near his chest and on his skin. Maybe it was the beautiful feeling of comfort while being so near. Maybe it was his heart’s fault.

Maybe it was all of the above. Maybe they all were the reasons.

But he simply acted on an impulse – or maybe a need that was hiding inside his mind for a long period of time and now it grabbed the chance, holding onto it dearly.

Because Max seized the moment, grabbed the opportunity and kissed David.

There was a sudden spark inside his head, a sudden burst of emotions, a sudden vibrating sensation inside his chest as he felt his lips touching David’s in front of him.

It was amazing, it was astonishing, it was everything and even more than he had imagined through this whole time.

Max knew his brain – the rational part of it – was sending him loud alarms through his head, but he shut them down, smashed to pieces as he tilted his head a little bit, to feel more, needing to feel more and more of the lips under him.

David’s hand, resting between them, twitched. Max relaxed his fingers and moved them to intertwine with David’s hair scattered on the cold stone.

Maybe it was happening for a few seconds, maybe even a full minute, he wasn’t sure. However Max moved away, feeling the sudden need for air.

Max opened his eyes to stare at David beneath him. To say that the teacher was surprised would be an understatement. David’s eyes were wide, looking right at Max in response. His mouth opened a little bit to take a few big gulps of air with his chest heaving between them. His cheeks were flushed with bright, red colors, scattered all over the freckles, almost making them invisible.

But Max was sure his face was even worse, he could sense his cheeks blazing beneath the skin.

There was a short span of time, a sudden stillness, a small period of hesitation or incomprehension that floated between them.

And Max’s heart hammered loudly inside his chest. He threw every caution to the wind and dove down for more.

David’s lips weren’t particularly dry, they weren’t plump and soft either, they weren’t perfect in any definition of this word, yet they were the most amazing thing Max had ever tasted. Max could feel shivers running down his spine as his tongue moved, licked the bottom lip, hoping and praying, needing more and _more and more_.

David’s hair was soft under Max’s fingers.

There was a short heartbeat, a sudden gasp leaving David’s lips and Max used this occasion.

(Because he wasn’t a kind person.)

Max slipped his tongue inside, tilting his head so he could taste and feel more.

And it was amazing, astonishing, exciting and beautiful. It was too much and too little at the same time. It was a waterfall of energy surging through his body. It was a heartbeat soaring in the sky as he kissed David deeply, moving his tongue around, tasting every place he could.

David’s other hand moved and clenched Max’s robe tightly, grasping it as their bodies moved and brushed together, trying to find a perfect position.

Max tilted his head and, damn, it had to be his imagination, but he could swear he sensed David doing the same.

David tasted amazing, kinda sweet, but with a bitter aftertaste, that made Max move deeper and deeper, pushing his body further, trying to get more of the heat emanating from David’s body, trying to feel more of David as Max’s tongue roamed around.

It was intoxicating, it was addicting and it was stunning, incredible and wonderful. Max could feel his heart trying to jump out from his chest. He could sense every place where David’s body touched his own.

Max took more and more, swirling his tongue around, trying to get more and _more and more_. Then after a few seconds he found David’s tongue, unmoving, just like it was from the very beginning.

_(Please, please, please! Max needed it!)_

Max swirled his tongue around, hoping for some kind of a response, needing some kind of an reply, pleading for some answer, because, God, he wanted more.

Max’s heart jumped high, loud, painfully inside his chest when he felt a small movement, a sudden twitch, a short response from David. He felt like he could burst and explode with the sudden happiness surging through his limbs and chest, because a second later or so David’s tongue moved, making small, tiny, hesitant circles on Max’s one.

Max moved closer, got himself comfortable between David’s legs and brought himself as close as possible – enjoying the soft shudder that ran through David’s body, the short moan leaving his lips as their lips crashed, mingled and mixed together, the sudden tug of David’s hand on his robe as they brushed together, mouths moving passionately to–

Stop immediately when they heard a knock coming from the back door.

“David? Are you still there?” Daniel’s voice seeped under the door, not even a second later after he had knocked.

The connection was lost as they separated their lips. They turned their heads in the direction of the back door.

It felt like Max’s heart stopped beating when he saw the door handle moving.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yahoo! Here I am, bringing another chapter =DD. The last part is already written, it only needs to be beta-read!
> 
> Great thanks to amazing @maxvid-fan who helped me with checking it :D!
> 
> I hope it will make you smile, even a little bit!


	3. III

_“(…) And if there's a reason I'm by her side_

_When so many have tried_

_Then I'm willing to wait for it_

_I'm willing to wait for it”_

_– Lin-Manuel Miranda_

**ﾟ ｡ ･ * . ☆ ━  III  ━ ☆ . * ･ ｡ ﾟ**

Max felt like his heart could jump out of his chest. He could sense the fear overpowering his limbs when the only thing he could do was watch the door handle move.

Max’s swallowed hard, feeling David’s heart thrumming loudly inside his own ribcage as he could only stare at the –

Unmoving door. What?

The door handle moved, and it seemed that Daniel from the other side tried to enter, but the door didn’t move.

“David?” Daniel spoke again, the usual calm and collected tone replaced with something similar, yet totally different. With a note of worry hanging on the last word. “Are you–“

“I’m here!” David shouted from beneath Max, glancing at the door.

“Can you let me in?”

“In a second!” David replied.

Then there was a mess of rustling clothes as the both of them, still flustered, tried to get out from under the table and stand on more or less wobbly legs. During this process David managed to kick Max quite painfully in the crotch. It took all of Max’s willpower to not curl there on the ground and stop moving, because _damn!_ it hurt like hell.

Then somehow, miraculously, they untangled themselves and stood up.

David’s hair was in quite a disarray, even more than usual, but he only pushed them back while reaching for the wand resting near his hip. He took it out and swished it, making the candles light up again and the lock in the backdoor move, allowing the person outside to step inside.

And so Daniel did, not even a second later after he probably heard the soft click, he pushed the handle down and stepped inside.

The cold eyes quickly scanned the room and almost immediately landed on Max, who was learning how to breathe again from the very beginning. The frown immediately appeared on his face, getting bigger and bigger with every step Daniel took to get closer.

“What is happening here?” He asked, glaring openly at Max and then turning his head to stare at David.

His façade immediately smoothened out.

Max took the golden chance to correct his clothes when Daniel wasn’t looking.

“Nothing is happening here.” David said quickly.

His hand twitched and Max noticed that the sleeve of his robe was lifted up a little.

“Then what is he doing here?”

Max’s eyebrow twitched.

David licked his lips hesitantly – and the sight of it made Max’s stomach do a weird flip inside his body. David’s eyes darted around for a second, searching for something, anything–

“Mister David was helping me with my homework.”

Daniel turned his head to look at him.

“Oh really? From which class?”

Shit, shit, shit. It was a bad lie. Composed too quickly, with not enough thoughts and logic put into it. But if Max had stepped into this lie, he had to move further and further, to come out with something that seemed possible. He quickly searched in his mind for an answer – he tried to remember every homework he had, every book he had to read, every essay he had to write, every–

Essay!

“Yours?” Max answered, looking up at the Potion teacher. “You told us to write a two feet long essay about the Volubilis Potion. I was asking Mister David to help me write about the vegetal ingredients.”

Daniel stared at Max for a good minute, searching for something in Max’s posture, eyes, façade, movement, breath that would indicate that he was lying. How he managed to remain still was beyond Max’s mind comprehension.

Perhaps David clearly fidgeting in his place helped him.

Daniel then turned to the redhead.

“Can we talk?” He asked.

David looked up, biting his bottom lip, and nodded.

“Sure.” He said, some of his usual cheeriness returning to his voice.

Daniel crossed his arms over his black robe and then glanced at Max.

“Alone.”

Max lifted his hands in surrender, hoping and praying that Daniel didn’t see them shivering in the dim light of the greenhouse. He turned to David and simply said:

“Thanks for the help.”

David nodded, but he wasn’t looking at Max, but at some far away point behind him.

It really hurt. It sent a prickling sensation through his chest, overwhelming it for a few terrible seconds.

Max moved to the back door and opened it.

“Oh and Max…” He turned around hearing the cold voice once again. “Happy birthday.” Daniel said, without even a hint of kindness in his voice.

David twitched.

Max nodded at that.

“Thank you.” And with that he walked out of the door, closing it softly after himself.

For a brief moment he wanted to listen in, to try to hear what the two males inside were talking about, however in the end he decided against it. He had more prominent problems – a lot on his mind – now.

Like his future. And how the hell he should act after what had happened today?

* * *

 

For the rest of the evening he could find neither Nikki nor Neil anywhere, so in the end Max went back to his room. People cast him weird glances, probably due to his sweater, but he only glared at them in return and they left him alone.

He quickly moved to his room.

The night was, well, spent with turning from one side to the other, and reliving the memories over and over and over in his head.

The touch of David’s lips, the feelings overpowering all his senses, the soft shivers running through David’s body beneath him, the sweet aroma in the air, the warmness spreading over his abdomen as David slowly, hesitantly kissed him back.

Because he had done that. Max had felt him responding to the kiss! He had to!

It hadn’t been a figment of the imagination, right?

Right.

Max slowly exhaled through his nose and lifted his palm to touch his lips. There wasn’t any warmth lingering on his mouth, but he swore he could still taste David here. Just a few minutes – hours – ago, he had been kissing his… crush. Yeah, this was the word he had been searching for. He had kissed his crush.

Oh my God, he had kissed his crush!

Max turned over on the bed once again.

His heart hammered loudly inside his chest as he recalled over and over again the memories inside his head, reliving the emotions and sensations that had been surging through his body back then.

Because it was amazing. Max felt more alive than ever. He felt like he could fly, soar, jump so high – and higher and higher. He felt like everything was possible, like there wasn’t a thing he couldn’t do.

And for a brief moment he couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his lips.

But it quickly died down as the reality made him crash down, hit the ground painfully and lose his breath.

It made him remember David twitching nervously afterwards, looking everywhere but at him, hesitantly playing with the sleeves of his robe, moving quickly to get away from Max.

David had kissed back, but maybe it had been a spur of the moment. Maybe he regretted it deeply now. Maybe he tried to forget about right now and, just as Max, was rolling from one side of his bed to another. Maybe for him it was all a mistake.

But for Max it wasn’t a mistake.

However there had to be consequences for his actions. He was a student and he kissed a teacher – they definitely broke some rules. Even if Max has officially become an adult since today, he probably still shouldn’t do it. He knew he shouldn’t.

However he still didn’t regret it. If he had a chance, he would do it over and over again.

But if kissing David meant making problems for him or making him feel uncomfortable then Max didn’t want that. He didn’t want to see David fidgeting and twitching nervously around him. He didn’t want to see him looking away. He didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable.

He didn’t want to make David feel bad. However Max still wanted him.

Max finally fell asleep, feeling worse and worse with every passing thought.

The fact that he didn’t know what was happening to his friends wasn’t exactly helping Max in this situation.

* * *

 

Max found both Nikki and Neil sitting at the table and looking at the door expectantly. When he entered, they immediately waved at him, urging to quickly get closer.

So Max did, but even from far away he could see that they looked fine – without any scratches or broken ribs and limbs.

This look soothed Max’s mind a little bit, making his heart slow down to a normal beating pace. They were okay, nothing had happened to them.

Max quickly slipped onto the bench.

“Hey.” He whispered and was almost immediately submerged into a hug by no other than Nikki.

“You stupid fuck! We were so worried about you.” The girl hissed, tightening her embrace on him, to the point Max was almost sure his ribs could break any second now. “Is everything okay? They didn’t hurt you?”

“Nikki, you’re gonna kill him.” Neil, behind her, said.

“I don’t care, he almost scared me to death.” Nikki said, hugging him even closer.

Yep, Max was going to die at this point. Farewell world, it was nice (not really) being here.

“Nikki!”

Gladly Neil somehow pried the girl off and Max was able to take a beautiful, deep, delicious breath. Oh, ouch, yeah, his ribs were on the verge of breaking.

“But Neil!”

“I think Max has some explaining to do.”

Damn. He had wanted to help them and what was he getting in return? A fucking interrogation.

(But to be honest Max would do the same in their shoes. Nikki had done a lot of risky things and whenever she did, Max felt like his heart could stop.)

“I’ll tell you, but… later.” Max whispered, looking around at the people surrounding them in the Great Hall.

Both Nikki and Neil understood what he meant and nodded, but Neil still with that suspicious glint in his glasses.

Max turned to his plate and started putting food on it.

David didn’t appear for breakfast.

* * *

 

Of course, Max didn’t tell them the whole story. Like he didn’t tell them that he had kissed David, but he told them that they both had hidden inside the greenhouse – leaving out the fact that Max had been laying on their teacher under the table.

“So Pikeman and Niksslip didn’t get you?” Neil asked.

“Nope.” Max said, proudly puffing out his chest.

“That’s why he was so pissed off today during breakfast.”

“How about you, guys?”

Nikki told him their story. After Max had escaped, they had left Petrol to find Nikki and Neil. But it had taken the girl only one swing of her wand to petrify the boy and they both had managed to get into the castle without any more problems.

Max could finally relax. To some point, of course.

“But you guys should watch out from now on for a few days.” Max said, looking right into their eyes.

“You too.” Nikki said, swinging her legs back and forth.

“You have detention today, right?” Neil asked and then continued when Max nodded. “Watch out for yourself, okay?”

Max nodded, not really sure what else he could add.

* * *

 

Okay, he was kinda nervous. Okay, okay, okay, maybe not kinda, but like hella nervous. He could feel the tension pulling on his muscles, making him twitch several times as he moved through the grounds to the greenhouse.

His heart beat louder and louder with every step that was bringing him closer and closer. He could feel his chest constricting, almost painfully, making him almost grind his teeth.

To be honest Max really wanted to tell his friends what had happened during that evening. But he couldn’t.

He trusted his friends, he would put his life on the line for them. However it was something that shouldn’t be shared. Something that had happened just between the two of them. It was like a secret – a bond – that connected them both.

So even though Max wanted to tell it, he didn’t.

He stopped in front of the greenhouse and exhaled slowly through his lips. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Max definitely wasn’t expecting David to jump right into his arms and smile at him with that precious smile. But he wasn’t expecting David to kick Max out, with cheeks fuming with rage. Maybe something in between? But something positive between or something utterly negative between? This was what had been eating Max from the inside. The fact that he was lost – that he was moving around in a fog, with only speculations jumping and echoing inside his head.

No, he had to step inside.

So Max grabbed the handle and walked inside.

David surprisingly was in the main part of the greenhouse, fumbling around, doing God knows what. But when Max entered, he had a pot in his hand, which he quickly dropped after the door opened. The brown vessel smashed to pieces on the ground, scattering around quickly, smearing bits here and there, some of which even escaped under other boxes standing around.

Okay, so... not good.

(Max really tried not to feel down or sad, but, damn, it hurt. It was spreading some uneasiness through his bones.)

“Oh, hi, Max.” David said, immediately looking down at the ground and at the remains of the pot that just a few seconds ago had been in his hands. “Uh sorry, about the mess. I didn’t expect you…” A beat of silence. “… so early.”

Or maybe at all?

Max was already ten minutes late. But his sudden entrance could scare David. Theoretically?

(Max was probably searching for excuses.)

“I’ll just get a broom.” David mumbled.

Max huffed and took out his hand to swish it. The broken pieces rose from the ground and floated above it, only to finally move through the air to the trash bin standing in the corner of the greenhouse.

David observed the pieces like it was the most fascinating thing in the entire world.

“See? Done.” Max murmured, glancing up at David when everything was more or less cleaned.

“Oh, thanks.” The teacher mumbled, looked up at him and quickly darted his gaze away.

“So what are we doing today?” Max asked as he stepped closer and patted a Flutterby bush standing near the door.

The plant shivered under his touch, but leaned into it with leaves whispering delicately as Max moved his fingers through them.

“We need to replant Valerians and cut some of their roots for potions.”

As always.

Max took out David’s gloves from the bag, put them on and pushed his sleeves higher.

“Which soil are we using?”

* * *

 

This detention was different from every other one. Probably because there was this thick, dense something hanging above their heads, Wait, that was wrong, it was definitely because of that.

Max tried to act normally (or as normally as he could), but it was kinda hard to do so with his mixed emotions spreading through his chest, abdomen and limbs.

David wasn’t getting close to him and whenever Max tried to hold his gaze, he quickly looked away. There was a strain holding David captive – pretty visible in his stiff shoulders and robotically moving hands.

The detention was spent mostly in silence, with only short sentences thrown back and forth. When Max finally went out he felt more tired and sad than ever.

* * *

 

The next detention wasn’t any better. This heavy something was still roaming around the greenhouse, making even plants look almost sad. Everything seemed weirdly gloomy and kinda grayish.

A small vine moved down and tickled his cheek, but Max only moved his hand and let it curl around his finger. He glanced back, but David was in a faraway point of the greenhouse and definitely wouldn’t hear him.

So Max let the words out.

“Yeah, I’m not happy either.” He mumbled, staring at the ivy climbing up the wall. “I also wish for the situation to be different.” He sighed and tried to move his hand away, but the vine didn’t let him. “I don’t know what to do.”

The was a soft flutter and the vine let go of his hand to curl near his cheek, almost like it wanted to make him look back. So Max did.

“No, I don’t want to make him uncomfortable with me approaching him.”

If plants could huff, then the rustle that echoed around him definitely could be interpreted like one. But it didn’t come from one plant, but from different ones surrounding him.

“Okay, I’ll try… doing something.” Max said, scratching the back of his head.

The vine retreated and hung now in the air, near his head.

Seriously.

* * *

 

Even Max had enough of it during the third detention after their accident.

The fact that it hurt as hell had a quite big impact on his decision. But mostly he was simply worried about David, who, all this time around Max, had been stressed to the maximum. The tension had been pulling on his muscles and making him trip a lot of times or lose hold on pots on several occasions.

So yeah, when David finally crashed face first into the ground, Max decided that it was enough.

“I’m okay!” David quickly said when Max put the small shovel down and moved to him.

Even from far away Max could see that the man wasn’t fully okay, as there was a quite painful gash on his cheek which started to bleed.

“Mister David–“ Max started, getting closer.

David only lifted his gloved hand to touch the cheek, smearing the blood and probably dirty soil around it.

“I’m okay.” He repeated himself, looking up at Max, only to glance away. Yet again.

Max’s heart thrummed painfully inside his chest, clenching, squeezing and thrashing around his ribcage at the sight.

David tried to get up, but hissed when he attempted to straighten his knees. They were probably also scratched and bruised.

“Like hell you are.” Max scoffed.

He moved closer and grabbed David other’s wrist to drag him to the office.

“Max, I’m really–“

“You’re not, so shut up.” Max said, before he could bite his tongue in time.

But that indeed made David shut his mouth and allowed Max to drag him around.

They entered the office. It wasn’t exactly that late, but it was still pretty dark, so Max moved his wand and lit a candle standing on David’s desk. It lit up instantly, showering them with a little bit of orange, warm light.

“Sit and wait.” Max ordered and then let go of David’s wrist.

He rummaged through the office and a small storage room in search for things he needed. A small bowl of water, a clean cloth (so difficult to find in the dirty greenhouse) and a first aid kit–

Unfortunately, the first aid kit had to wait, because Max couldn’t find it anywhere.

He returned to the office to find David sitting on the desk and staring at the ground or maybe at his dirty knees. His hands brushed the material, like he searched for some rips or wounds he might have there, but when Max entered he stopped doing so to look up at him.

“I’m really okay.” He mumbled.

Max rolled his eyes and put the bowl on the desk, next to David’s hip. He got rid of the navy blue gloves he had got from David and grabbed his teacher’s face to get a better look at the cut.

It didn’t look too good, especially as the whole scratch was covered with dirt, soil and dust. Some blood already started to dry, forming tiny lumps here and there. Max brushed away a few clumps with his thumb.

He exhaled through his nose, soaked the cloth in the water and slowly started to clean David’s cheek. Max didn’t want to brush it too hard as to not hurt the man, but the ground was holding strongly onto the skin. The dried blood was easy to get rid of, but whenever Max was moving the cloth through the cut, new droplets of red liquid were appearing there, a few of them even rolling down the cheek.

Seriously, only David could cut his cheek so terribly by falling on the ground.

The teacher hissed when Max tried to get rid of a small amount of soil that had gotten into the cut and he mumbled a quick apology.

The water quickly turned gray and Max had to replace it.

All this time he worked in silence, squeezing his eyes when the light coming from the candle wasn’t enough to see every detail on David’s skin. A few times he had to step closer and tilt his head to check if the dark patch he saw there was blood, a scratch or dirt and at first David twitched when Max did that, but he stopped after some time. Several times Max could sense that the man stared at him, but whenever Max lifted his gaze, he looked away.

David started to move his legs slowly back and forth when Max changed the water for the second time.

After another few scrubs, the cut was clean and wasn’t bleeding that much.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” Max asked, holding the cloth near the cut.

“In the storage room.”

“I didn’t see it there.” Max raised his eyebrow.

David finally looked at him and didn’t immediately look away. The corners of his mouth twitched into a small smile.

“It’s under the green plastic chair.”

“Okay, hold it here and I’ll search for it.”

David lifted his hand to hold the cloth near his cheek. Their hands brushed, but Max quickly looked away, not wanting to know what kind of face David would be making. Probably a terrified one.

Max’s hand was still warm as he stepped into the storage room. He found a green plastic chair, hidden under bags of sand. The first aid kit was indeed beneath it, lying haphazardly on its side.

“The first aid kits should be put in easy to access places.” Max said, returning to the office with the dirty white box in his hands.

He put it on the desk, next to the bowl, which he had to move away.

“I was in a hurry and forgot about putting it back in its place.”

“So you put it under a chair?”

“I kinda simply threw it under it.”

Max sighed and shook his head, feeling a smile forming on his lips. He opened the first aid kit and rummaged through it in mighty need for a band-aid. It was hard to see anything in the darkness, so Max had to believe his sense of touch more than his eyesight. However after a few seconds it seemed like he caught the correct thing.

It was a band-aid. But covered with small pictures of stars and moons scattered around and smiling at the person holding or seeing the adhesive pad.

Of course, only David could have band-aids for kids in his first aid kit.

“Seriously?” Max asked, lifting the band-aid to get a better look at it.

David glanced away. His cheeks were hinted with pinkish color.

“They looked cute.”

Max chuckled, but moved closer to stick it on David’s skin. The man tilted his head, allowing Max to put it there at a correct angle. When the band-aid was stuck on, Max moved his thumb over it.

“Did you hurt anything else?” Max asked, stepping away, immediately feeling colder.

“Uhm, my knees, but I can take care of those later.”

“How about your hands?”

David had tried to save himself by using his hands. However back then he had had  his gloves on, so maybe they weren’t that bad.

“Erm…” David started, only to be interrupted by Max sighing.

“Show them to me.”

David lifted his gloveless palms from his knees and turned them around.

They didn’t look that bad, though the skin on the heels was hinted with red spots scattered around.

On the left hand though Max could see faint scratches, they weren’t on the palm, but on the wrist, almost like the sleeve of his robe had rolled up a little bit while landing – quite painfully.

Max took the cloth, put it back in the water and grabbed David’s hand, so he could move it closer to the candle light and treat the wound.

He moved the wet material around, getting rid of dirt and small specks of sand and unfortunately skin here and there, when David opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

Max lifted his head for a brief moment, only to cast his gaze down at David’s hand still in his grasp.

“For what?”

“For acting like that, I think.”

It didn’t seem like either of them needed more explanation. Max immediately understood what David meant.

He could sense his chest tightening. He could feel his heart shuddering suddenly and his mind becoming hazy. He could feel guilt nipping then biting harshly on his consciousness. Because it was wrong. David wasn’t at fault here, he shouldn’t be apologizing for the way he had acted, when Max was the one who had started it in the first place.

If he hadn’t moved, if he hadn’t acted on his needs, if he had controlled his emotions then everything would be different. But they had accumulated in his body to the point he hadn’t been able to keep them at bay. And he had fucked everything up.

“I should be the one apologizing here.” Max mumbled, putting the cloth away, but not letting go of David’s wrist. “It’s my fault, so you know…” Damn, why was it so hard to speak. He felt like his throat was closing down. “… Sorry.” He finally exhaled, let the word out and looked up right at David.

And the man was staring back at him with a kinda surprised face. His eyes were so wide and the light coming from the single candle danced in the irises, flickering, dying and coming back to life again. David stared back at him and Max felt like he couldn’t control his body. His hand – the one holding David’s wrist – tickled, with shivers running up his arm and both beautiful and so terrible warmness spreading from it through his entire body.

(David’s face looked so mesmerizing in this moment – with the soft, reddish glint, with the hue coming from the fire glistening on the skin, with the light glimmering in his eyes, with the delicate residues of the blush still being there on his cheeks, mixed with the freckles scattered around the skin – that Max forgot how to breathe.)

Then his lips moved, twitched and formed the same smile. The same kind, delicate, childish smile from before _that evening_. The same smile which promised that everything will be alright.

And _oh_ … how Max needed it.

“Apologies accepted.”

And Max felt like something utterly heavy was being lifted from his shoulders, freeing him from the painful tension and stress ripping his body apart from the inside. He felt his chest getting bigger and bigger and, wow, how hadn’t he noticed that breathing had been so difficult until now.

Max couldn’t stop the small tug of his lips after hearing those words. He couldn’t stop the small sparkle of fire – not the burning one, not the big one, not the sizzling one, but the tiny one, but utterly beautiful and warm nevertheless – from forming inside his stomach.

They stood there for a few more blissful seconds before David slipped down from the desk and took his hand from Max’s palm.

“Let’s go. We still have a lot of work to do!”

* * *

 

“So the things between you and David smoothed out.” Neil murmured, not really looking at him from behind the book he was reading. Or pretending to read.

Max swallowed the food he had in his mouth and then looked at his friend.

“What do you mean?” He asked, lifting his eyebrows.

“Lately you seemed down whenever you returned or had to go to David’s detention, so we assumed that you two had an argument or something like that.”

“Like lovers’ quarrel!” Nikki pipped, next to Neil, devouring the meat she had on her plate like wild animal.

“I–” Max started, only to be almost immediately interrupted by Neil.

“You don’t have to tell us what happened, if you don’t want to. You don’t have to share everything with us. We understand that there are things you prefer to keep to yourself.” He said, glancing up at him for a second, only to return his gaze to the book. “But I just wanted to say that I’m–“

“We!” Nikki once again interrupted Neil.

“–we…” Neil corrected himself. “… are happy that it looks like everything turned out fine. And we are here for you, whenever you want to talk or, I don’t know, get your mind off some things.”

Max blinked and then stared at his friends.

Nikki was grinning at him like crazy, mouth stretched wide, from ear to ear, showing a line of now maybe not perfect white teeth. Neil was looking up at him, and even though he wasn’t smiling, Max felt that the teen was happy.

Max didn’t know what he had done to deserve this. To deserve such amazing friends. Max knew he acted like a dick more times than necessary and that there were moments that he would take back, moments when he had acted on impulses. But they stayed with him through every storm, through every horrible outburst and through every bad day of his life to this very moment.

“Thanks.” Max finally said, when his throat allowed him to. “It really… means a lot to me.”

Nikki grinned wider and Neil shook his head softly at that.

“No problem. I just wanted you to know that.”

Seriously. Max didn’t deserve them. Yet they were still with him, even though he had fucked up so many things in his life, had made so many bad choices, had done so many things that he was ashamed of.

Max looked down, so he could hide the smile that threatened to appear on his face.

“By the way, I don’t know if you noticed it, but crazy Daniel looks like he wants to kill you.” Nikki added.

Max automatically lifted his head and indeed he could feel the killing intentions seeping from the Potions teacher’s stare.

Oh shit.

Max wanted to immediately look away, to turn his head and maybe pray that Daniel couldn’t cast the _Unforgivable Curses_ without his wand and without muttering any words. But Max stopped fidgeting when he saw David looking up at him and waving softly, from his seat next to Daniel – with whom he had probably been talking a few seconds ago.

Max nodded at him and then Daniel’s gaze hardened even more.

Yep, he was dead.

* * *

 

“I really think Mister Daniel wants to kill me.” Max said, looking up at David’s back.

The teacher glanced at him and then turned his head at the ceiling. He moved the shears further away and cut another dried vine which fell down on the ground with a soft _thump_.

“He doesn’t want to kill you.” David said, the cheery tone ringing in the last note. “Where did you get that idea?”

“Uh, from everywhere!” Max said, raising his eyebrow. “I’m sure he was the one who replaced my ingredients during the last class and made my potion explode.” Yeah, that wasn’t a good memory. And his fringe had burned a little bit and now was kinda short.

(David had snorted so hard at him when he had seen him after the accident and Max would have strangled him if he hadn’t liked that sound so darn much.)

“I’m sure he wasn’t the one who did that.” David said and moved the blades further away.

The ladder on which he was standing wavered a little and Max tightened his grip on it. The vines holding David’s leg and curling around the metal rails also tightened their grasp with leaves fluttering in worry.

“Well, I’m one hundred percent sure he was the one.” Max snarled.

“Daniel isn’t a bad guy.”

“And I’m a saint, yeah, right.”

David huffed, then moved the shears down and turned to Max.

“What’s your problem with Daniel anyway?”

“I don’t have a problem with him, not counting the fact that he literally tries to kill me whenever he sees me.” Max said, looking up at David’s dirty face and hair.

While cutting the vines creeping on the ceiling, some small particles of plaster landed on David’s head, coloring it with white hues and tones.

Max had a lot of problems with Daniel, but David didn’t need to know all of them. Or even a lot of them. The only thing important now was Daniel’s murderous intentions towards him. Seriously, how Max was still alive was a miracle.

“That’s not true.”

“I beg your pardon. Try to see how he looks at me and you’ll see for yourself.”

“Alright, I will.” David mumbled, some kind of resolution moving through his furrowed eyebrows as he turned around to finish the work.

Max didn’t mind holding the ladder for David. Actually, he wasn’t sure if he was needed that much there as the vines almost completely embraced the metal rods and secured them tightly to the floor – and during this process also curled around Max’s hands. But Max didn’t complain as he had a really great view at David’s... back.

(And he couldn’t stop himself from peeking. Come on! He may be an adult in the magical community, but there was a lot of teenager inside of him.)

They worked mostly in silence, filled with shears snapping here and there, showering the ground with more cut parts of the vines. It wasn’t uncomfortable silence, on the contrary it was quite a pleasant one. David was letting out a sound from time to time – whether it was a small shriek when the ladder moved or a hum of some old tune – and Max found himself enjoying every moment of it.

It was almost terrible to say, but Max started to enjoy the detention. He really liked it – he liked having something to do in the afternoons, he liked spending time in the greenhouse. God, he even started to enjoy being around plants.

(Of course, he mostly liked being near David, but only his heart needed to know that.)

But the time was moving forward and in just a few weeks the detention will be over. Too short weeks.

Max didn’t want that. Fuck, he never thought there would be a day when he would say that he didn’t want to finish his detention and yet here he was, doing exactly that. Something was definitely wrong with him, there had to be some kind of an error inside his brain, some kind of a curse put upon his poor self.

Max tightened his grip on the ladder when he heard a loud _snap_ above his head.

“Uhm, Max.” David started speaking, not glancing down, but moving his hands further to try and cut another vine. “Now that we are on the topic of Daniel –”

“We were like five minutes ago.” Max interrupted, smiling under his nose, but David only glanced back at him for a second and then turned back.

“– last time when he and you were here he said something to you. I mean…” There was a short spasm of a moment when David took a shivering breath. “… at the very end.”

Max’s chest constricted. It wasn’t the first time either of them had mentioned _that evening_ , but every time it had happened it had made Max’s guts twist inside.

He took one calming breath, told himself that the things between them were okay and only then he somehow managed to speak.

“You mean the sarcastic Happy Birthday?” He inquired, to be honest not really sure if David meant that.

“I, uhm, yeah? Why sarcastic though?”

“Because it’s Da… Mister Daniel?” Max raised his eyebrow, but he quickly looked down as the ladder wavered a little when David tried to reach further. “I’m sure if he could he would wish me the worst birthday. Or like curse me and at least ten generations in my bloodline.” Max chuckled under his nose. “Why do you ask?”

David stood on his tiptoes and reached forward, trying to reach far away and cut one hanging leaf.

“It’s because, you know, I wanted to –“

Of course, David didn’t finish this sentence as the ladder tipped heavily to the front and David shouted. He automatically moved his body back, letting go of the shears which clattered to the ground. The teacher waved his hands heavily back and forth, trying to find some kind of stabilization as Max and the rest of the plants tried to move the ladder back into its straight position.

Oh that was why David needed him right now. To save him from falling down and probably breaking half of his bones and spine.

But how can Max do that? Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, time was moving so fast, his brain started to project only bad images in front of his eyes and his heart thrummed so rapidly inside his chest, pumping, pushing blood through his veins fast, faster and faster, urging him to just do something.

The leaves around him fluttered, shivered, trembled, some immediately moved towards danger to help, but they were too slow.

David tipped back and fuck–

Max jumped on the second or so step, hoping and praying in his heart that the vines would keep them from crashing down and ending their lives. Gladly the vines held the ladder strongly, now in a kinda crooked position.

Max reached out his hand in time to grab David and save him from welcoming the floor – yet again – but this time with his back and probably broken skull.

One of David’s hands smacked Max in the face accidentally as he tried to find some kind of leverage. He finally tightened his fingers on Max’s shoulder with the other hand being stopped in the air by another vine that dropped from the ceiling to stop the fall.

Max breathed heavily, feeling his heart staccating loudly inside his ribcage, almost painfully jumping around. But now, when everything stilled and stopped, it started to slow down. The hand which held the ladder tightened its grip, feeling the coldness of metal seeping into the skin. Max wiggled the fingers of his other palm, gripping David’s body and keeping him in a kinda very weird and awkward position – as the teacher had been stopped in the middle of falling down

It kind of looked like time halted for him.

David slowly exhaled through his mouth, with his bottom lip shivering. He tightened his grip on Max’s shoulder.

“Uh well… it is kinda late, but… Happy Birthday?” He said breathlessly, like he hadn’t fought for his life five or so seconds ago.

Or maybe the whole world still didn’t catch up with him yet.

“Thanks.” Max mumbled back, feeling his arm stretch and tense painfully.

(Plus the fact that David was so close wasn’t really helping him, it was making everything way worse.)

David stared at him with those big, doe eyes and Max felt his insides crumbling down. The moment stretched into a few seconds, a full minute, then two minutes and they were still there, stopped in mid-moment.

Max wiggled the fingers holding the ladder and it looked like it snapped David back to reality.

“Oh, sorry, Max.” He said, quickly, gripping the vine from the ceiling and hoisting himself up to the step his feet would reach. “But thanks for saving me.”

“No problem.”

Max retracted his hand and let it hang near his body. He stepped down onto the ground and then bent so he could grab the shears David had dropped.

“How will you manage to work without me, after I’ll finish my detention?” Max asked instead, somehow finding his voice inside his throat.

David glanced at him and shrugged.

Max tilted his head a little bit.

“I don’t know. So I won’t think about it yet.”

“My freedom is not so far away.” Max answered, hinting on a joking tone that made his lips curl into an evil smirk as he passed the shears to David.

“I know.” David answered, grabbing the tool and moving higher on the ladder.

And it probably was Max’s imagination. It had to be Max’s imagination. Because there was no way that David felt sad about the idea of Max finishing his detention, right?

* * *

 

The situation between them was good. It was kinda surprising how fast they jumped back into what they had had, leaving only small traces of the consequences lingering inside their skins in their behavior.

It looked like David didn’t want to touch that topic, and Max didn’t want to be the one doing it, so he let it be.

(Even though the curiosity was eating him from inside, because the teacher had kissed him back, right? It hadn’t been some sick part of his mind playing tricks on him? He still could sense David’s hand gripping his robe and legs leaving space so they could move closer together–)

To be honest Max never heard about any of David’s love affairs. Of course, there were rumors around the school, but now it looked like the man didn’t have anyone, nor did he seem interested in anyone.

So Max technically had a chance. Of course, there was this problem that David was his teacher and he was a student, but damn. He was in his sixth year – one more to go – and not to mention he was technically an adult. In the Wizarding World.

Though if someone caught them, they could have problems. Daniel had almost seen them last time, but something told Max that Daniel would do everything to keep David safe here. Even if it meant getting rid of Max. Probably preferable in form of ashes as Daniel would burn him quite quickly.

But other students… couldn’t be that good at keeping secrets.

And Max didn’t want to cause problems for David, no matter how many times his hand twitched or heart beat or the hair on his skin stood or his mind stopped working. He held strongly to keep it all in check – even though it hurt like hell – but he would do it all. He tried to do it all.

Though it was really difficult to do it, as there were some things that kept interfering in his plans. Or like totally messing them up.

And surprisingly (very much so) David’s whole greenhouse was messing up Max’s plans.

How?

By playing stupid matchmakers! Like seriously, Max wasn’t joking! At first he thought that maybe it was his imagination, or like a lack of sleep or some other stupid shit that was happening to his brain. But no, apparently it was very much true.

The end of detention was getting closer and closer with every passing day and it made Max quite uncomfortable and jittery. Maybe that was why at first he didn’t notice the small movements in the background, the hesitant whispers of leaves and the tiny flutters of vines creeping through the greenhouse.

But he definitely noticed the vines climbing up his hand and actually moving it without his consent. Like what the hell!?

Max was standing behind David – holding his utensils as the teacher methodically sprayed every bush with a potion and then wrapped the trunks with some kind of material – when he felt the vine climbing up his shoulder. And at first he didn’t really care about it. Nowadays the plants had started to be really friendly with him – even to the point he sometimes had to swat them away. So he ignored it.

He definitely shouldn’t do that as during the very next second his hand started to move, reaching toward David.

It took Max one second of processing the situation, before he was tugging his hand back forcefully, glaring at the green vines that were still trying to reach forward. He let out a huff, managing somehow to put his hand behind his back, just in time for David to turn around.

“Something happened, Max?”

“No, everything’s fine.” Max mumbled, trying hard to keep the hand behind his back. Damn, those plants were strong! How did they manage to do that!?

David stared at him for a moment, before he shrugged and returned to his work.

Max somehow, magically, managed to push the vines away.

* * *

 

The second time it happened Max wasn’t that surprised, though he was still unprepared for it.

Well it was kinda hard to prepare for your chair to suddenly start moving.

David was sitting not too far away from him, grading some last week essays while listening to music and humming softly under his nose.

Max was sitting on a chair, granulating the roots they had dried during the first weeks of detention, when he felt a soft tug, followed by a scraping sound. At first he ignored it wholeheartedly. But that was once again a mistake.

He tried to focus back on grinding the roots in the mortar. And he even managed to do it, for a minute or so, before he felt another tug. A short one, but he still moved an inch or so.

Max glanced down only to spot vines and leaves wrapped around the legs of the chair, which were bringing him closer and closer, inch after inch, millimeter after millimeter, to David.

Max was never so glad that David was listening to music.

Max tried to kick the vines away, but he only managed to let them wrap around his ankles and immobilize his legs. The vines gladly weren’t moving that fast nor that strongly. Otherwise Max would be hip to hip with David way faster.

The plants only managed to move him half a meter or so, before Max freed his leg and then stood up from the chair.

The chair clattered to the floor and it brought David back to reality. He jumped in his seat, made a big stain on some poor student’s essay and then turned to Max, raising his eyebrows.

“Uh… I saw a spider on the chair.” Max quickly mumbled, when David took out the earphones.

David chuckled at that and returned to grading the homework.

Max took the broom and swept the vines away with it.

* * *

 

The third time it happened, Max swore that he was on the verge of killing someone. Or rather the plants in David’s greenhouse.

Okay maybe calling it the third time was wrong, because there were other small situations which had happened between the second and third time.

Like once one leaf had made Max turn his head to see David swirling around in the afternoon light. Even though he had swatted the leaf away, he had kept on stealing glance after glance at David.

Or then another time when a vine had offered a flower and when Max had lifted his eyebrow, it had pointed at David hesitantly. Max had shaken his head, but the vine wrapped itself around his hand, so that the flower had been held by him, but Max had still moved away. There was something utterly wrong with giving David a flower from his very own greenhouse.

So yeah, there were a lot of other small things happening here and there, but the third attempt at matchmaking was pretty visible.

Well it was hard not to see roots suddenly moving, shooting from the ground, to make Max trip on his way over to David. Max actually saw it, he could spot the roots suddenly moving up, just in time to hook on his leg. Yet he noticed it too late. So he tripped on it and flung forward.

Right into David to whom he was walking.

David was in the middle of turning around and was even already opening his mouth, but it all died down when Max crashed into him, sending them both tumbling down to the floor.

The situation so familiar, yet so different.

“Sorry, are you alright?” Max asked, looking down at the teacher.

“Uh, yeah, I’m okay.” David said.

While David had his eyes closed and was massaging the back of his head, Max immediately moved away – even though he didn’t want to. But he didn’t want to cause problems and the rational part of his brain was telling him to move away, no matter how hard he wanted to do the opposite.

Max quickly stood up and reached his hand to the teacher. When David finally opened his eyes he gladly grabbed his hand and Max hoisted him up.

“Sorry once again.” Max mumbled, glancing away, breaking the connection of their hands. “I tripped on a root.”

David let his hand drop and then smiled hesitantly back at him.

“No worries. Happens to everyone. Even to me.”

Max lifted his eyebrow.

“You don’t say?”

It made David chuckle loudly, closing his eyes in the process.

“I know it’s hard to believe.” He said, opening his one eye and staring back at Max.

And just because David still had the band-aid glued to his cheek (not the old one with moons and stars, but a new one with bears) Max flicked it, grinning from ear to ear.

“Whatever you say, Mister David.”

David yelped and then quickly covered the spot with both hands. He glared at Max, but the dangerous look was quickly broken when he pouted.

Seriously.

* * *

 

“So last day of detention, hm?” Neil said, bringing a fork closer to his mouth and then munching slowly on the eggs he had there.

Max slumped down on the bench.

“Oh, so it’s finally this day?” Nikki, sitting next to him, asked with ketchup smeared over her lips.

Neil sighed and then patted his lips while staring at the girl, to show that she had something there. The girl nodded furiously and then grabbed a napkin to clean herself.

Max groaned at the back of his throat.

“Oh wow, you are in a really bad mood.” Nikki said, crumpling the napkin and throwing it in a random direction on the table.

Max was in a fucking terrible mood, to be honest. He never thought he would be sad about the idea of ending a detention, but here he was, doing exactly that. Or maybe it was because of David.

It probably was because of David.

“Well crazy Daniel is definitely in a good mood.” Neil added, reaching his hand to grab a goblet with juice.

“Oh yeah, I saw him almost skipping to the teachers’ table.”

Max grunted and then hit his forehead on the table, letting out an incoherent nose through his mouth. He could see some students flinching, but he didn’t care.

The only thing that mattered today was the fact that he was finishing detention.

On one hand it was good. Soon they will be starting Quidditch practices and not being available three times a week was kinda troublesome for the team. But on the other – and if Max had to be really, really honest – he will definitely miss working.

Yeah, that sounded even terrible to him, but that was the truth. Max will miss working – like actually doing something that didn’t count as homework. Seriously, even he was surprised with himself. Like, no, definitely he was under a curse. Or at least some kind of spell.

“Look, Daniel is almost smiling.”

“God, Nikki, don’t make me look that way, I may have nightmares till the end of my days.”

“Yeah, me too.”

When the three of them were exiting the Great Hall to go to the library to catch up a little bit on their homework, Max stole a glance at the teachers’ table. And indeed yes, Daniel looked like he was the happiest man alive. Max swore he could see stars shimmering around his head. And when the man suddenly looked at the entrance, the grin became even wider when he spotted Max.

Creepy.

Creepy as hell.

Max quickly shuffled away from the Great Hall.

* * *

 

Okay, maybe Max was a little bit early, but he was restless and wasn’t sure what else he could do, so he simply walked to the greenhouse.

He shuffled through the grounds, stepping on the muddy snow or kicking it around. A few students walked around, chattering lightly about something or bursting in laughter. However Max wasn’t in a good mood.

He deliberately tried to be slow, but his feet didn’t listen to his mind. They were bringing him faster and faster to David’s greenhouse. And in a moment he was already there, standing in front of the familiar door.

Funny. Of course this wouldn’t be the last time he would be touching this door, as he still had classes from Herbology. Yet he was still feeling like he will never see this door again.

Max actually stood there for a good minute, before he found the strength in himself to step forward and touch the door handle. He pushed it slowly and then moved the door, opening it only a little bit.

He was about to move further, when he heard a voice.

“– and please behave yourselves.”

Max stopped with his hand still on the freezing handle. He stopped breathing – there was an echo of his heartbeat somewhere inside his chest – as he tried to quiet every sound inside his ears to listen in.

David was in the main greenhouse and when Max tilted his head just right, he could see his shadow looming on the table in the center.

“And don’t give me those eyes!” A shushed flutter resonated in the air. “You know what I mean!” David murmured.

Max wiggled his fingers and pushed himself closer to the gap he had made. It was hard to see anything, but he could kinda see David’s sleeve.

“It’s Max’s last detention.” His heart squeezed after hearing his name.” And I don’t want you making him trip or do weird things.” Another rustle of leaves, petals, branches and vines. “I don’t want to be the victim either. And yes, I saw you last time.” The shadow moved, pointing at something, maybe even scolding it with a finger. “I saw what you did last time. It wasn’t nice. He could have hurt himself.”

Was David talking with (or to) plants? Well Max had heard him doing it a lot of times, but he had never heard him lecturing them.

And apparently David wasn’t as blind as Max initially had thought.

“No, this wasn’t helping.” David followed, sighing at the end. “It was a very dangerous situation and please don’t do that anymore. Especially today. I want him to have fun, not fear for his life.”

Max stepped back when he saw a vine creeping on the floor toward the man standing in the middle of the greenhouse.

“I appreciate what you are trying to do.” Max twitched, pushing himself as close to the gap as possible, now feeling his heart roaming, raising, floating inside his chest suddenly. “But please don’t interfere.”

The vines twitched and he could almost see them wrapping around David’s hand. He let out a soft chuckle, but a kinda dry, almost raspy one.

“That is sweet of you, but I can manage. The only thing I need you to do today is to behave yourself.”

Max licked his lips. His hand twitched.

“Thank you.” David said and then there was another rustling sound, followed by whispers. Max could hear footsteps moving through the greenhouse, getting further and further away.

Only when they were barely audible, Max managed to exhale slowly through his lips, with his chest struggling to do so.

So David had noticed the plants in the greenhouse playing matchmakers. Maybe he hadn’t noticed every small thing – like the vine making Max almost reach for him. But he had definitely seen other things.

Max felt like he was burning from the embarrassment swimming through his veins. He sensed a pounding echo resonating inside his skull.

Did David know? Did he know about Max’s feelings?! Damn, it was a stupid question. Max had kissed him, for God’s sake, of course he had to know that Max was feeling something towards him. People just don’t kiss other people randomly!

Max felt like he could start hyperventilating soon.

David definitely knew. He had to know. Not even David was too stupid to not see Max’s heart and his feelings. Oh no, this was bad. He had kissed Max back, but what part of it had been David’s own feelings and what a spur of the moment?

Probably a lot of it had been the spur of the moment. That was why he had been lecturing the plants. To not lead Max on. To show him that they couldn’t be together, to deny and kill Max’s feeling way before they could rise and grow.

(It was too late.)

Max felt his chest shivering and constricting painfully. He felt a thunder resonating inside his bones as he swallowed hard and it felt like sand, a ton of sand, was going down his throat.

It was okay. It was okay. It was okay. If that was what David wanted then Max was okay with it. He would deal with it. He had to deal with it.

(Even though it hurt. It hurt like a son of a bitch. It hurt like hell.)

But if that was what David wanted, then Max was okay with it.

He pushed the handle and stepped inside.

“Hey Max! You’re early!”

David was there, peeking at him from his office with that blinding smile.

Max felt like he could crumble down.

* * *

 

Through the whole detention nothing weird happened. Every bush, tree, flower, vine was acting normally – or well, as normally as they could. They still sneaked up, wrapped around Max’s shoulder or fluttered happily when he approached them.

Everything seemed the same, yet Max felt a heavy weight pushing his body down.

He shouldn’t have come here early. He should be late as always. Maybe this way the last spark of hope inside of him wouldn’t be killed. Maybe this way he still would be living in a fake world of having a chance, of hoping, of living through and with the sweetest dreams.

Now Max felt exhausted – as he was ripped off all emotions.

“Everything okay, Max?” David asked, putting the bucket of water down and staring at him as Max picked the petals from the flowers.

“I’m okay.” He immediately said, not looking at the teacher.

“Really?”

Max nodded, feeling a bile forming in his throat.

David left it like that and moved away. Though Max had a feeling that the man was observing him from far away.

Max tried to ignore it.

* * *

 

And just like that, the detention came to an end.

With heavy heart Max observed the hands of the clock in David’s office moving, only to finally rest at the assigned time. Normally he would be all up for finishing the detention, but now, even though he felt like shit, there was a part of him that didn’t want to go.

David was in the main greenhouse. When Max exited the office, after getting rid of the gardening tools, he smiled kinda sadly at him.

Max stood there, scratching the back of his calf with his foot and staring at everything and nothing in particular.

David put the small shovel away, took of his gloves and then brushed his hands together.

“Well I hope you learned something from your detention.” He said, trying to sound jokingly.

Max raised his one eyebrow

David chuckled at that and stepped closer, putting both his hands behind his back.

“It was nice having you here, Max. Thank you for all your help.”

Max nodded, not really trusting his voice in this moment. Especially as David was so close to him that he could smell the soft scent of soil.

Some part of him wanted to scream, to yell, to shout, to ask David if perhaps Max could stay. But the other part knew it was impossible. David didn’t want him. He had made it pretty clear in distancing himself. He had made it pretty clear today. Max was going to respect this. He had to.

Though his heart yearned for something else.

David tilted his head and looked at him, the concerned crease returning to his forehead. He was probably worried, because Max was quiet. Shit.

“Sure.” It was the only word, which managed to leave his lips. Max quickly coughed, clearing his throat a little. “It was almost… the nicest detention I ever got.”

David chuckled.

“I’m glad then.”

Max’s mouth twitched, forming something like a small smile.

“Well guess I’ll see you during next classes?”

“Take care, Max.”

Max nodded, turned around to grab the gloves from the desk and moved to the door, hearing the echo of his steps jumping off the greenhouse’s glassy walls.

His heart beat loudly, making a storm inside his mind. Maybe he imagined the last time here a little bit different – maybe a little bit sadder, maybe a little bit more joyful, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like they were saying goodbye forever.

But this detention was a slice of time cut for them – just for them and no one else. And Max really started to like it. He started to like the familiarity and peace this time was bringing him. Everything here was living its own life – a mish-mash of so many energies and emotions swirling in the air.

It was like a whole other world, yet like something utterly familiar and known, and Max longed to stay here for a little bit longer than he could.

However he couldn’t. So he moved to the door.

Or well, wanted to, but something was preventing him from stepping forward.

A thick vine wrapped itself around his leg and tugged him backward. Max was so taken aback, even though he really should get used to it, that he almost tripped as the foot was pushed back.

“Shit!” He mumbled, glaring down.

From the corner of his eyes he could see other vines creeping on the floor to wrap his other leg in a tight grip. Then another few flung down from the ceiling, grabbing his shoulder.

Okay, what the hell was happening!?

“W-what?”

Were they attacking him? Did they finally turn their backs on him? But why? Max tried to be nice to them. Okay, maybe this one time he shouldn’t have stepped on them, but come on! Max wanted to live. His life wasn’t the best, but he still liked it.

In just a few seconds they almost immobilized his limbs’ movement. Well almost, because Max was struggling to break free.

“Hey!” He shouted, trying to knock down the tentacle that circled his hand.

Max moved his hand and then somehow miraculously freed his one leg. He turned around to show the vine a piece of his mind (a quite angry and furious mind now), when he was met face to face, or actually chest to chest, with David, looking utterly surprised and confused.

Max could only think that this was weird as fuck, before he felt David’s body touching his in something resembling a tight hug, without the actual hugging part being there and _oh…_

Those fucking plants.

David’s fucking plants wrapped them in an embrace. Without their consent.

“Y-you guys!” David shrieked, lifting his hand a little bit to brush away the vine that was wrapped around it. But the plants were holding strongly and he only managed to grip Max’s shoulder before this limb was immobilized too.

Max couldn’t believe this was happening. This had to be some weird, strange, bizarre dream.

Max fought for a minute, but with every movement of his palm, hand, foot and head the vines were tightening the grip they had on both of them, bringing their bodies closer together and _uh oh_ that wasn’t good.

Now he could feel David’s erratic raises of his chest on his own robe, he could sense every muscle tense as he still tried to break free, but only managing to get nearer to Max.

It was a mess of limbs. It was a mess of vines, but in just a few minutes they were totally overwhelmed and tied by the plants.

Now Max could kinda understand why David didn’t like his first years being in the greenhouse unsupervised. It still didn’t change the fact that now David couldn’t control them either.

Then after a painful minute the silence started to rule over the greenhouse.

They were both painting and gasping for air as just a few seconds ago they had been fighting to break free and regain a little bit of the privacy they had had. But now the privacy was smashed to pieces, bodies glued to each other to the point every movement of David’s body was echoing and vibrating in Max’s own.

Max was sure that in this situation his brain would be full of thoughts, ideas, possibilities, but it was weirdly empty and hazy, like some kind of fog took over his mind, blinding and shutting down every other process.

David’s moved his fingers, wrinkling the robe on Max’s arm.

Max didn’t know what to do in this situation. He wasn’t sure where he should even look.

Everything stilled to a halt and only their breaths were left.

And after a moment that felt like an eternity, Max glanced down.

David wasn’t looking at him, but around the greenhouse, brows furrowed in worry or filled with some deep thoughts. There was a pink smudge spread over his cheek, but he was still breathing kinda heavily. The exhaustion due to the previous effort was probably playing an important role here.

(Or did it?)

Max’s face probably wasn’t any better. Not with his heart going crazy inside his ribcage.

Because, yeah, it was beating madly inside his chest. And he was sure David could feel it due to the proximity they had.

“I’m sorry Max. I told them that they should behave today.” David whispered, wiggling a little to get in a better position.

The vines on Max’s back kinda hurt now.

“But I guess they didn’t listen!” He finished, raising his voice and glaring to the side, at the place from which the vines were coming.

The leaves inside the greenhouse fluttered, rustled and swished around, almost laughing at them.

David growled – a sound so weird, unnatural and funny coming from his lips that Max couldn’t stop the small chortle from leaving his lips.

The sound probably resonated in David’s bones as he turned to him.

“That is not funny!”

“It kinda is.” Max admitted.

“It’s not!”

Max laughed one more time, mostly because he was really amused, but also to tease David.

He tried to lift his hand and shove Max, but only managed to move it a few millimeters and then it slumped down.

Max wiggled his fingers and found out they were touching an unfamiliar material. He fiddled a little with it as they stood there in silence.

This time it was Max who broke it, after they stood there for four minutes.

“So what should we do from now on?” He asked.

They couldn’t stay like this forever (even though Max kinda wanted to) and not to mention it was starting to get pretty late.

“I’m not sure.” David admitted, exhaling slowly. The air tickled the skin on Max’s neck and made the hair on his arms stand up.

“They definitely don’t look like they want to let us go.”

“I know.” Another shuffle. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

“I don’t see how any of this is your fault.” Max said, lifting his one eyebrow and glancing at the teacher.

But David wasn’t looking at him, but at his chest. David’s head moved a little bit forward, but it didn’t rest on Max.

“But it is. Trust me.” The red haired male hesitantly licked his lips. “I shouldn’t have told them anything.” He added in a whisper.

However Max heard it. It was hard not to do so, as David’s mouth was so close to his ear.

Max felt a shiver of excitement running down his spine and his hand tightened, clenching the fabric tighter inside his fist. He moved his face closer.

His heart hammered painfully inside his chest.

“What did you tell them?” Max asked, feeling the sudden need, the sudden want to know the answer to this question.

It probably wasn’t important.

So why did Max feel like he needed to know this?

“It’s not important.” David huffed.

“If it isn’t important then why don’t you want to tell me?” Max inquired.

“You don’t have to worry about it.”

“So it isn’t important or I don’t have to worry about it? Because these are two different things.”

“Both. Both are correct. You don’t have to worry about it, because it isn’t important.”

“What if it is important to me?”

“It isn’t.” Then like an afterthought David quietly added one more time. “It isn’t.”

But it probably was if David was acting so defensively.

“Why don’t you want to tell me?” Max wriggled a little, but only managed to make the vines tighten around them.

“Why are you so curious?” David asked, frowning at him.

“Because it looks like you’re trying to hide something. And I think this something may concern me.”

“I’m not trying to hide anything.” David mumbled, casting his eyes away.

Max lifted his eyebrow.

“You are doing it right now.”

“I’m not hiding anything.” David turned to him, some kind of resolve returning to his deadpanned gaze. “I’m just avoiding telling it.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s called hiding.”

“It’s not.” David looked up.

“Then point out the difference.” Max challenged.

David opened his mouth, closed it, then one more time opened it, only to close it, still with the same result and the same defeat looming on his face.

Max smirked, though there was a heavy, hollow beat inside his chest.

David puffed out his cheeks and huffed, but then some kind of sad wave swam and stormed through his eyes, crashing dully into the heavy, thick atmosphere around them.

Then Max felt like he could die from overheating as David slowly rested his head on his shoulder. He felt blood rushing to his cheeks and a sudden glow spreading through his veins, warming him with sizzling and blazing fire, crackling inside his body.

David exhaled slowly and Max felt the hot air on his skin, through his robe.

His hands fidgeted, but remained in their place.

Max couldn’t comprehend that this was really happening, that this was reality, that he was honestly standing here, feeling as everything around him was crashing down, yet still appearing, forming something entirely new, building it brick after brick.

Max swallowed hard.

“David…” He started, only to be interrupted.

“I hate you sometimes.” The teacher finally mumbled.

Oh, that wasn’t the thing Max expected to hear in this situation. He felt his chest constrict, but held strongly, keeping the air inside his lungs.

“Do you really?” He asked, feeling as the words scraped his throat.

“No, not really.” David exhaled. “I’m just… so confused when I’m around you.”

“Confused?” Max parroted.

David nodded, turning his head a little.

“Uhm, it’s… kinda hard for me to explain.”

Max tried to move his hand and only managed to move it a little bit, closer to David’s back.

“I think I kinda understand you.” He admitted, leaning his cheek on David’s head.

There was a short spasm of silence before the next response.

“You do?”

Max hummed in reply and then opened his mouth:

“When I’m around you I sometimes feel like a mess. There are times when my mind can’t comprehend words and sentences and my throat gets stuck and nothing can make it work. But there are times when I feel utterly at peace, like there is nothing that can break me, like there is no world beside this place.” Max took a shallow breath, trying to calm his racing heart. “And I’m confused about myself, I’m confused about many things, but I… kinda like this state.”

David moved again.

“You do?”

Max nodded, cheek rubbing the red hair beneath him.

“Yeah. It is sorta unfamiliar, but it isn’t bad. And somehow with time I feel it clearing up for me. I mean there are still some hazy parts, but I like…” He swallowed hard. “I like getting to know them.”

This time the male didn’t answer, but tightened his grip on Max’s shoulder.

For a heartbeat they breathed in synchronization. A terribly long moment, filled with nothing but the two of them and the sweet sensation of holding someone close who was warming their skin and heart. A long pause in time filled with delicate nothingness where there wasn’t the rest of the world behind the door and glassy windows and walls.

A moment of solace.

And then Max spoke.

“I like you, David.”

There was a short inhale, something similar to a gasp and Max froze.

He didn’t mean to say it out loud. He never meant to let the words out from his mouth. He couldn’t understand why he let them slip out now. But Max did and his heart came to a halt, it paused momentarily as the world around him stopped spinning.

Taking his words back now sounded like a bad idea.

(Especially as some part of him didn’t want to do that, it was jumping from joy and happiness, feeling free for the very first time.)

And when Max prepared himself for the worst answer, the one that could smash his heart and mind to pieces, he heard a small whisper near his neck.

“I like you too.”

Max felt like his heart could leap from his chest, like it could run and float and soar and dance and beat like crazy.

Max felt more alive than ever. He felt like everything was possible, like there wasn’t a thing that he couldn’t do

He felt complete.

Of course, the sudden happiness surging through his body died down when the next words left David’s lips.

“But I can’t do that.”

Max was drowning. There was a sudden splash and there was water filling his mouth and lungs, hands pushing him further under the surface, making him lose the sweet breath that somehow still kept him alive.

“Why?” Max croaked as he was breaking and crumbling inside.

He tightened his grip, feeling as if he didn’t do it, David would suddenly disappear.

“I simply can’t.” David mumbled, puffing out the hot air onto Max’s skin.

“But I like you.”

And David liked him back.

So why couldn’t they do something with it?

The teacher chuckled – a kinda quiet, dry, heavy chuckle left his lips and then he moved away.

There was something grieving in David’s façade, something absolutely sad and something that made Max feel worse than earlier. The happy face he usually wore was still there, but it was crooked, like the mask wasn’t put on correctly or it broke and cracked in a few places, showing a shadow of a real person hiding inside.

But David still put a forced smile on his lips.

“This is not enough, Max.” He said, the devastating tone hanging, dripping from the last word.

Max felt like his insides were shivering and trembling, raising the clouds of dust as they were falling down.

“There are things in life I can’t sacrifice now.” David continued. “Things I don’t want to sacrifice. There are things I don’t want to give up on to act on my emotions. I have too much to lose.” Then he tilted his head and his hand sneaked to Max’s cheek, caressing the skin softly. “I’m sorry, Max.”

“So there are more important things to you?” Max whispered hoarsely, leaning into the touch.

He felt terrible. He felt like he was burning and freezing inside, both in the same time.

“I’m sorry, Max.”

“Me loving you is not enough?”

Was it not enough to change David’s mind? Was it not enough to risk a little bit?

People always told stories that love was a force stronger than everything else. But love came in different forms, with different meanings, with different outcomes in the end. Love was beautiful and painful.

David smiled, that happy yet false smile, which was interlaced with sadness and intertwined with pain.

“There are things in life that are not worth risking.” He said, eyes looking up at him, a sudden redness appearing beneath them. Another hand moved up and touched Max’s other cheek. “You’ll find someone better soon. I’m sure of it.”

But Max didn’t want anyone else. He had made up his mind. He had made up his mind and heart a long time ago.

It hurt. It hurt like hell. It hurt deeply. And Max felt that his every breath was shorter, smaller. It was making him dizzy and foggy inside.

He felt that the corners of his eyes were prickling and _oh_ … But Max pushed it all down, he gripped it hard and killed it, turning into dust and sweeping the residues under a carpet.

“David –” Max tried again, hoping and praying for some kind of thought that would help him, that maybe would make the teacher change his mind, that would help Max get through to him.

But he found nothing, as David repeated the words that cut his heart in half.

“I’m so terribly sorry, Max.”

Max’s breath hitched as he looked back into emerald forests, spreading far and wide, but drenched with the evening rain, dripping down the leaves. David’s eyes looked like that.

Then, after a painful eternity passed, David retracted his hands and stepped away, making Max’s palm fell limply next to his body.

Max didn’t even notice when the vines had left their bodies, untangled themselves from their limbs and allowed them to move freely. Now they were creeping away on the ground, looking weirdly ashamed of their actions.

“Thank you for your help, Max.” David mumbled. “I hope you’ll have a nice evening. Remember to finish your homework about Snargaluff pods.”

Max never felt emptier than during this evening.

* * *

 

To be honest, Max didn’t expect this kind of ending. He wasn’t sure what he expected, but whatever it was, he didn’t think it would end like this.

It hurt. It hurt a lot.

And yet he was living. He was breathing, he was laughing when Nikki said a good joke, he was sometimes cracking a smile when someone would trip on the stairs. There was some crack inside of him, in his heart, making it crumble. There was a missing place inside his chest, something that was utterly hollow, something that needed to be filled. Some part of him was empty, but he was still alive.

The best thing he could do from now on was… move on.

Easier said than done actually. How was he supposed to do it when he was seeing David everyday during meals, when he was sometimes passing him on the grounds, when he had classes with him, when the teacher was looking at him like nothing changed, like he hadn’t just broken Max’s heart?

Time was passing, so was Max’s life. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, then a week, another one.

Life wasn’t some romance book. Or maybe Max simply wasn’t the main character of one. Maybe he was a side character, the one that only played a role that had to sadden the readers – Max wasn’t sure, he hadn’t read that many romance books.

Nikki and Neil immediately noticed the drop in his mood, but they inquired about it twice or thrice and then dropped the topic when Max was pretty unresponsive.

But he simply couldn’t tell them the truth. Not because he was ashamed of it, but because of David.

Who still dared to ask Max about his day during Herbology, like nothing in the world was wrong. When it was. And Max felt out of place.

Like he suddenly stepped into an alternative universe where everything was dulled, hollower, grayer, emptier of everything that made the world so vivid.

Yet Max was living. He was breathing.

There were a few endless nights which felt like they would never end as Max gripped his chest, feeling the painful echo resonating inside and eyes prickling behind the eyelids. There were nights where he fell asleep immediately and the dreams never were sweeter. And there were nights when he was taken away by the dreams, but they were dull, nightmarish, filled with so much void that Max was waking up, feeling that the world around him was swirling.

He knew that he will probably forget about David, but when will it happen? Will it happen after a month, a year, ten years? Will there always be this emptiness inside of him – as the stolen piece of his heart was kept by someone particular?

Will he ever feel fulfilled and not like he was missing something?

But Max was smiling, was breathing, the world was moving. Yet he knew that he missed something, he wanted something for himself, he wanted something – someone – to make him feel complete, to make the world burst with colors.

Max felt like he was back at home, without friends, only seeing his parents’ stoic and emotionless faces everyday.

Was David also missing him? Was he staring at the moon and thinking how their fates would intertwine if some things were different?

Some part of Max hoped that it was happening, but the other hoped that at least David could feel like himself.

Because Max couldn’t.

Days passed and his feelings didn’t change. He still felt the urge to grab David’s hand, to see him smile, to see him shimmering with positivity. He still wanted to hold him close, to do something to ease the pain, brush it away from the shoulders.

But he couldn’t do a thing.

Days passed. Winter turned to spring. The green leaves started to grow on the branches and the world was never more vivid and lush than in this moment. And during one not so normal morning, when Max felt like nothing will ever change, life decided that it did enough.

* * *

 

Max couldn’t sleep.

It wasn’t anything new. Max usually couldn’t sleep well, but today it was way worse than ever. Or maybe it was due to the three coffees he had drunk in the evening while trying to finish his homework.

Yeah, that could be the case.

So Max laid on his bed, listening to quite loud snores of his roommates and staring from behind the quilt at the window, where the sun was starting to rise above the horizon. The sky around it was spotless, hinted with pink and faint yellow smudges, morphing into orange glows.

And the sun just happened to shine right at his eyes.

Fuck his life. Even the sun was against him.

Max turned over to his other side and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep for a few minutes and not be a living dead through the day. And he had Potions today. Potions! Daniel won’t let him slack off, no, Max needed to be cautious during these classes.

So a little bit more sleep would be a blessing.

Apparently Max wasn’t blessed, but cursed, because no matter how many times he changed his position, he was still awake. Painfully awake.

He even checked the time on his wristwatch lying on the night table. Way too early. And now Max will be pissed off through the whole day. He could already feel the anger accumulating in his bones and skull, twirling and swirling, fogging his senses from time to time.

Yep, it was going to be one of those ‘very pissed off’ days.

Plus the fact that the guy next to him was suddenly snoring like crazy wasn’t helping.

Max felt like destroying something, he felt like he could strangle someone, like he could grab something and smash it against a wall.

It was dangerous. He had to calm himself somehow to not accidentally hurt his friends later by saying something he didn’t want to say. But what to do? What could he do to calm his strained nerves that were vibrating furiously at every sound around him?

He needed silence, some deep silence.

And definitely some fresh air, Max concluded when he inhaled deeply, but the smell in the room only made him almost gag. Yeah some clean air was very much needed.

Max stood up from the bed and changed his clothes quickly. He didn’t really care to be quiet. Besides his roommates didn’t wake up anyway. He went to wash his face and brush his teeth quickly and then he was moving through the empty Slytherin common room to the exit.

The people in the paintings yawned and opened their eyes as Max creeped past them, but he didn’t pay them much mind.

The school at this hour was deserted. Actually it would be really weird if Max bumped into anyone. No, he preferred to be alone, to calm his nerves, mind, heart, feelings, emotions, to find a way to think coherently again.

His steps echoed loudly through the corridors.

And not soon enough he was in front of the main door. He grabbed the handle and pushed it down. The metal hinges creaked loudly as Max pushed the door to get outside.

The world was bright, much brighter than his dorm room. The sun was almost above the line of the trees in the Forbidden Forest, peeping almost happily at the world beneath it. A soft, kinda chilly wind rushed past the school grounds, messing up the grass covered with thousands of droplets of dew. There was this smell of soil and trees in the air, but it was hinted with something kinda wet. Oh yeah, it had rained yesterday evening.

Max stepped into the grass and slowly started to move through the grounds.

The world at this hour looked different, altered. Back when he had been doing David’s work, he hadn’t looked around much, he had wanted to get to the greenhouse as fast as he could. But now that he was alone and had time, he started to notice those small things. Like how vivid the trees under the wall looked, how the grass whispered under his feet, how the birds chirped softly, perked on the branches around, how the world seemed so big and so small, both at the same time.

Max took a deep breath. It was way better than being in his room. And even though he still felt some anger lingering in his mind, he felt better. More clean. More alive.

Max looked up at the sky, closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

The wind nipped on his cheeks, but it was a kinda familiar, warm feeling that made him all fuzzy inside. The birds flew above him, singing to each other, untangling the mess of nerves Max had in his body. The atmosphere of the isolated grounds filled his lungs with sweet, fresh energy and air.

And, of course, even this small piece of peace had to be broken by someone who Max would never expect to see here at this hour. He didn’t expect to meet anyone, but that was beside the point.

“What are you doing here?”

And Max’s happy mood was instantly broken.

“I could ask you the same thing, Mister Daniel.” Max snapped back, looking at the teacher in front of him.

The blond haired man furrowed his eyebrows and then lustered Max dangerously.

“Students shouldn’t be outside at this hour.” The man said.

“It isn’t against the rules to be outside if the sun is out.”

Max knew. He had read all the school rules five times, focusing mostly on the laws about the relations between teachers and students.

Daniel’s eyelid twitched and he tilted his head in this very creepy way, which never brought and meant anything good.

Now Max could take a good look. Daniel wasn’t wearing his usual robe, but a heavy coat with a white fur around his neck. He was also wearing long boots, which were now fully covered in dirt, and black gloves, definitely made from dragon scales. From several places a few branches and leaves were sticking out and not to mention there was a dirty smudge on his cheek.

What the hell was he doing here? Burying a body? Max wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

“I see someone did some reading.” Daniel murmured, not moving his gaze away and not even blinking. What a freak. “But unfortunately not about the topic which we’ll be covering today.”

Max felt like groaning, but he held strongly and only tightened his fists which were secured in his pockets.

“Don’t worry. I also read about Nux Myristica.”

Daniel hummed, but didn’t look like he was fully convinced. There was a leather satchel, covered in soil and leaves, hanging near his hip.

“Are you looking for it right now?”

What a subtle change of topics to get back to the very beginning.

“You also didn’t answer my question, Mister Daniel.” Max said, lifting the corner of his lips higher.

Daniel’s face twitched. The same smile, the kinda empty one, was still there – for a few painful seconds – before it disappeared, replaced by something different, something human and something that definitely didn’t fit the Potions teacher.

“I was gathering Knotgrass for future uses.” Daniel said, like it explained everything.

“So early?”

“If you focused more during my classes, you would know that Knotgrass should be picked a few minutes after the sunrise.”

Max huffed, wrinkling his nose. To be honest there was a hazy, vague memory of Daniel saying something similar not so long ago.

Daniel smirked and then opened his mouth:

“What are you doing here, Max?”

“Why do you want to know?” Max fought back, shifting his weight to the other leg.

“I think I know, I just want to hear it coming from your mouth.” Daniel said, the mischievous grin dancing on his lips.

Max felt like brushing the smirk away with his own fists, but knew better not to do that.

“Yeah? Then why am I here exactly?” Max asked, darting his head up and staring back at Daniel, almost urging him not to step down from a fight.

To be honest Max didn’t expect Daniel to guess right. On the very first try nevertheless.

“Is it because of David?”

Max shut his mouth instantly, feeling his chest squeeze. And the dark thoughts were back, swarming his mind and occupying every possible place of his body.

He came here to clear his mind of David, not to start thinking about him again.

Because Daniel was right. He couldn’t sleep because of David. It had been one of those nights when his feelings had ruled over his body, when he had stared up at the ceiling and had thought about how things could be different. This had been one of those nights when he had imagined different possibilities and had tried to relive the kiss and hug and _oh so many_ other moments once again.

Max didn’t know what to do so he opted for glaring at the teacher.

Daniel tilted his head painfully.

“Oh, I guessed right.” The blond man said.

Max didn’t answer, only clenched his fists tighter, feeling his nails painfully pierce his skin.

This was bad. This meant that Daniel knew and if Daniel knew then there was a possibility that other people also knew this and then David could have problems and it would be Max’s fault and he didn’t want to cause problems –

There was a small chuckle leaving the pale lips.

“You can make fun of me, but leave Dav– Mister David out of it.” Max snapped, eyes moving up to stare at the teacher in front of him. “I don’t want him having any problems.”

Daniel glanced at him and then crossed his hands on his chest. There was something weird in his gaze, some sudden resolution, some sudden anger, yet some kind of pity also swirling with the rest of emotions.

Daniel stared at him, fingers tapping on his dirty from soil shoulder.

Max didn’t step down, instead decided to send daggers as he stared back at the teacher.

Maybe Daniel hated him, but Max swore if David will ever be in a pinch because of the Potions teacher –

“You know it’s against the rules, right?” Daniel suddenly said, the creepy smile disappearing from his lips.

Max blinked, but didn’t step down.

There was a short pause, a sudden silence, where the branches moved, pushed around by the wind which was also pushing past their clothes

“I know.” Max finally admitted, licking his suddenly dry lips. “Chapter five, paragraph eleven.”

_It was forbidden for the teachers to have any sort of romantic relationships with the students._

Daniel nodded.

“That is correct.”

Another span of silence enveloped them, as they stared at each other in the light of the morning sun, moving higher and higher on the horizon, slowly waking up every plant, animal and probably some elves inside the castle.

Daniel suddenly sighed and then massaged his temples. There was a soft whisper leaving his pale lips, something that heavily resembled an _‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’_.

Max also couldn’t believe that he was here, on the school grounds, with Daniel of all people.

“Listen, Max.” Max looked up. “David is my good friend and I want what is best for him.” Daniel took a deep breath. “Beside this school, he doesn’t have much. And losing this place would definitely kill him.”

Max swallowed hard, feeling a shudder resonating painfully inside his chest. He knew that. He fucking knew that. Most of the students knew that David lived in the castle, knew that the greenhouse was his pride, knew that hidden behind the optimistic shell of a person was a broken one.

He felt his heart shivering inside his chest, clenching and twisting, making him almost want to gag.

“I know that.” Max whispered.

He didn’t want to hurt David either. He wanted what was best for him. He wanted to see him happy, not devastated.

“And I don’t want him having problems.”

Max wanted to curl up, but he only looked away for a second, feeling the embarrassment blooming inside his stomach.

Why was Daniel saying all of this? Did he want to make Max feel bad? That was a possibility. Did he want to discourage Max? But Max knew the consequences. Why was Daniel still here, talking with him, looking so serious all of a sudden?

“You know what describes a good herbalist and gardener?”

What the fuck?

Max snapped his head up and stared with bewilderment at Daniel, who was eyeing him suspiciously.

What game was he playing? Was there some catch? Was there something hiding in this question?

“So?” Daniel asked, raising his blond eyebrow.

Max mumbled the first thing which popped into his mind. The first thing that described David perfectly. The first thing that fit him too well.

“Kindness.”

Daniel’s mouth twitched into something similar to a smile. Almost nice one! Max definitely needed more sleep, because there was no way that it could be true! He had to imagine this! He had to!

“It’s patience.” Daniel said, looking at him.

That was true too. David had to be patient. It takes a lot of time for the plants to grow, it takes a lot of time for the pods to bloom, it takes a lot of time to let the plants trust someone, it takes a lot of time to see the results of the hard work.

“David is very patient.” Daniel said. “Are you?”

Max gaped at the teacher, feeling something inside of him storming.

Daniel smirked and then started to move. In just a few steps the teacher passed him and moved to the castle.

“Don’t be late for my class.”

Max stood there, processing what had just happened.

Daniel’s words echoed in his mind.

Was Max patient? Definitely not. He was getting immediately pissed off after something was going wrong, he couldn’t even wait for a few days to finish his potions, he liked to have everything done immediately to not worry about it later. Max wasn’t patient, he was brash, impulsive, impetuous – he was the very opposite of being patient.

But time was moving forward, slowly, but surely, pushing everyone close to the future that was awaiting them.

What kind of future awaited Max?

What kind of future did he want after finishing the school?

Max’s breath hitched. He unclenched his fists and slowly started to move. Short steps turned into long strides. Hands left the confinement of his pockets. Hair bounced on top of his head.

Max ran. Ran as quickly as he could, as fast as his legs would let him. He ran and he felt the wind blowing from the back, almost urging him to move even faster, helping his every step bring him closer, faster, quicker to that place.

His heart pounded loud, his blood buzzed inside his ears, his brain had only one goal.

Get to the greenhouse.

The glassy walls appeared not soon enough in his line of vision. Max felt his breath getting heavier with every quick step he took. He felt his chest clench due to the exhaustion. He felt his armpits getting sweaty. But he didn’t care.

Max wasn’t patient.

But he wanted to try.

The door handle was cold beneath his fingertips as he pushed it down, not bothering to knock first.

But what if David wasn’t here? What if Max had ran all this way for nothing? What if he had to turn back to return to the school to feel even worse than before – when he was so close, when the hope was shimmering so brightly right now.

The door was open.

Max pushed it. It creaked softly under the force, making way for him to step inside.

The greenhouse was showered with bright colors of the sun gleaming above the windows. The yellow and white light glimmered, spreading its warmness around the leaves, branches, pods, flowers and vines which were resting calmly inside the warm greenhouse. There were a few particles of dust floating in the air, dancing and swirling around, combining with the rays of sunlight that were scattered around.

It was a calm view. A kinda altered one.

Max moved forward, before the bravery would disappear from his heart. Some plants whispered, moved, turned to him, but Max couldn’t pay them any mind.

Find David. He had to find David. He needed to find him.

He strode through the greenhouse, panting loudly due to the running he had done to get here as fast as he could. His eyes jumped from one place to another, like he expected David to suddenly stand up from behind the table and wave at him.

But of course nothing like this happened.

Where could he be? There were a few other greenhouses so David could be literally anywhere. He might not even be here. He might have forgotten to lock the door! Oh God, what if David wasn’t here? What if he was somewhere else?

Then Max heard a creaking sound of an opening door and he turned around on his heel to stare at the entrance to David’s office. Then after a second a person emerged from it, huffing and panting loudly as they tried to drag something big from it.

Max felt his throat getting dry as he stared at the teacher pulling a giant crate from his office.

And Max suddenly froze. He could feel his heart staccating loudly inside his ribcage as he stared at the man, but every coherent thought flew from his mind, leaving only an empty, bright something.

David somehow managed to drag the crate outside, letting the door close slowly after it. He straightened his back, sighing softly. One hand moved to brush away the sweat from his forehead, scattering the red curls around. Eyelids fell down, then rose up and in this very moment he twitched. David turned his head and looked at Max.

There was a pause between them. A long, kinda heavy and unnatural silence which spread between them like some kind of virus.

David stared at him and he looked like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Max couldn’t really blame him, it was too early for any normal human being to be awake. Even birds only had woken up maybe an hour ago.

“Max?” David finally asked in a weirdly dry voice. Then, like he finally understood what he had said wasn’t that smart, he continued. “What are you doing here?”

What exactly was Max doing here? He knew why he was here, he knew what he wanted, he knew what was pushing him forward.

(The sweet love resonating inside his chest.)

But even that love couldn’t help him from any coherent words inside his brain. It didn’t help to get his mind to work and build some kind of an intelligent answer. It didn’t help him ease the situation between them. It only made him incredibly happy to be near David again.

But the teacher was still staring at him, hesitantly, unsurely. There was indecision growing in his eyes, the longer he stared at Max.

“Max?”

He had to say something, but what? What could he say? What can he say to make David change his mind?

No, he didn’t want to change David’s mind. He had accepted his decision. Max had agreed with his choices and ways. But he wanted to ask… for more time. He wanted to ask for the impossible and hope for a positive response.

Max’s heart played a loud symphony inside his ears.

“David.” He started, only to lick his lips at the end, feeling how chapped they were.

“That’s my name.” The man chuckled, although uncertainly. “I didn’t expect to see you here –”

At all?

“– so early.”

Max exhaled loudly.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He croaked, feeling the tightness in his throat preventing him from speaking more.

He was nervous. He was an emotional disaster. He could feel the stress playing on his nerves, some terrible, high-pitched song.

Yet the hope. That darn, beautiful hope was keeping him alive. Was making him still stand here and not step back. It was helping him stay and navigate in the storm, when the wind was pushing him back.

David blinked.

“Oh… oh, I can let you stay in my office if you want to sleep a little bit more!” David suddenly said, looking around and into his office. “I have this very comfortable hammock chair!” Max took a step forward and David looked down. “Or… or you can use the bench here if you want.” Another step. This time David looked up and made a small, hesitant one step back. “I can fold some clothes for you to use as a pillow.” Max felt something creeping up his shoulder as he took another step. “Or if you want I can make you some hot cocoa.” Another step, a small movement near his hand. David put his leg back, but didn’t move away. “Yeah, I think it’s a good idea!” David suddenly said, smiling to him and turning on his heel to walk away.

“David, wait!” Max shouted, raising his voice and stepping closer – faster, even quicker – lifting his hand, trying to reach David to stop him, because Max couldn’t let him go. Because if he let him go now then the hope, the sweet blissful hope that was blooming in his chest would be lost and he didn’t want that, God, he didn’t want that. He needed to reach David, to catch him, but David was already moving, stepping away, far from Max and he didn’t want that –

But David suddenly stopped.

Max’s hand floated in the air and oh… there was a vine wrapped around it, hanging from the last finger, but reaching further to successfully wrap itself around David’s wrist, preventing him from moving further.

The teacher stopped moving and slowly, terribly slowly first glanced down at his wrist, securely wrapped with the lush green vine, only to follow the trail of the vine and look at Max’s hand.

David swallowed hard, moving his eyes higher, only to look right into Max’s eyes.

Max was as surprised as David. He slowly looked back at the plant, at the culprit and savior of the situation. The Venomous Tentacula swished softly behind him, fluttering its leaves, almost nudging Max to do something.

Max turned back to look at David. He took another step forward and another. The vine wrapped around David’s wrist prevented him from moving back and Max knew for a fact that the man would never hurt his favourite plant.

So David painfully stayed in place, staring at Max with a mix of fear, hesitation, hope, happiness, surprise dancing on his face. His lips moved, like they wanted to form some words, but nothing came out, not even a shushed whisper.

Max stopped in front of David, almost feeling the hot breath coming from the teacher’s nose on his skin.

“David…”

David swallowed, but only opened his mouth a little, not letting any sound out.

Max felt like he could burst from the inside. Like there was a roaring fire fighting in his chest, shimmering, glowing, taking over his mind and spreading further to his limbs. There was an echo of a beat, a lonely, but beautiful beat of the heart, whispering, saying sweet, blissful, enchanted words behind his ear. Words of hope, words of acceptance, words of promises, precious promises of a better tomorrow. It was a weird cacophony – but an amazing and beautiful one nevertheless.

The hope nudged him forward.

The fear kept him back.

But they weren’t even. No, Max didn’t want them to be even. So he gathered the last particles of bravery, the last pieces of need inside his body and let the words out.

“… I like you.”

It wasn’t much. It was a simple sentence. He even had said those words a few weeks, months ago.

But it still made David’s eyes shimmer with something positive, with something so vibrant that made him radiate those amazing vibes. But before this astonishing light would disappear, before the reality would crash down, Max continued, letting his heart do the talking and pushing his rational part of his brain back.

“I like you. I’ve liked you for some time.” And he’ll probably like him for even more. “And I know you see me as a kid. Fuck, I’m probably still one.” He exhaled sharply, looking away for a second, only to quickly return back. His hand twitched. “I know I still didn’t experience a ton of different things in my life. I know I still have a lot to learn. And I know I’ve made a fuckton of mistakes. Hell, I’m sure I will make even more mistakes.” Max let out a dry chuckle and David’s lip twitched hesitantly, but naturally nevertheless. “I know I’m not a good person, but fuck, when I’m near you I feel like I could be one. Like I want to be one.” He coughed and then slowly took David’s hand in his, feeling the kinda dry skin under his fingertips. “I’m probably making a mess out of myself right now.” David smiled at him and even though Max probably sounded dumb as fuck, he didn’t mind. ”The point is – I like you. I like you with all your positive attitude and the dark moments you have. I like your smiles and hidden grimaces. I like the way you make me and people feel. I like so many different parts of you.”

But love consisted of loving and accepting both positive and negative things. It was a beautiful emotion, a sudden uprising of the heart during the morning light, a small peaceful drizzle of calmness during the evening, a short span of shared time.

Max gripped David’s hand tighter, feeling his heart calming down.

“I’m not a patient man, David.” The name so naturally rolled off his tongue and the eyes, God, David’s eyes never held so much hope and joy. “I mean, I don’t think I am. I’m brash and short-tempered. I do things without thinking first. I do and think later.” David chuckled and the sound was never so sweeter than right now. “But I want this. I want you. Not someone else. You, with all your flaws.” A heartbeat, a resonance. “I’m know I’m no good at this, but I want to wait. I will wait.” A pause, a stillness, a void and a supernova. “Will you wait for me too?”

A year. More than a year and Max will finish this school. It wasn’t much, but in a year a lot of things could happen. A hundred memories could be written down. A thousands moments could be lived.

But Max wanted this. He wanted this for so long that he didn’t want to step down. He didn’t want to back down, he wanted to move further, to grab the possibilities spreading in front of him.

He waited. He waited with the heavy beating heart. He waited with fuzzy thoughts scrambling through his mind. He waited and waited and waited and it felt like an eternity, before David opened his mouth.

“Do you really mean it?” He asked, and his voice broke midway through speaking this one sentence.

Max’s heart shuddered, but he couldn’t find it in himself to speak so he only nodded, looking right back at David.

“Do you really want to wait for someone like me?” David looked up. There was some kind of a lost look inside his eyes, some kind of hesitation and pain, but so much of something else, something warm and blissful. “You can find someone else. Someone younger, someone better. You still have time.”

A thousand unspoken words stood in between them, got lost in the aether that surrounded them, that wrapped them in a tight, warm embrace.

“I want you. You and only you.” No one else. No other person could replace him. Max didn’t want any other person. “So please, wait for me.” He gripped the hand tighter, brushing his thumb softly on the skin.

And Max stared back. In his mind and heart he pleaded and prayed and hoped and asked and begged and dreamed and believed and wanted to –

“Okay.” David breathlessly answered, moving an inch closer. “I’ll wait for you.”

Max felt like shouting, like soaring and flying. He felt like he could suddenly burst, like he could explode, like he could burn from the sudden warmth which spread through his veins.

“Really?” Max asked, feeling his voice breaking in half.

David looked back at him with eyes full of beautiful, kind and warm love which shimmered so brightly that Max couldn’t stop the smile from sneaking on his mouth. No, he didn’t want to stop it.

Because with David it was okay. With David he could smile and didn’t feel ashamed that something was wrong with it, with him he could smile and know that it was true and honest from the bottom of his heart.

David nodded slowly, the sweet grin splitting his lips.

Max exhaled slowly, feeling his heart growing and blooming inside his chest. He felt that suddenly every empty part of his body was filled to the brim with something amazingly beautiful. He felt like he could do everything and that there was nothing that could break him.

He basked in those emotions and feelings, in the sweet atmosphere around them, before the outside world would knock on the door and tell them that their time was up.

So before the reality would storm through the greenhouse, taking away the warmness and happiness from their bodies, Max leaned and put his lips on David’s forehead.

A small movement, an invisible promise, a tiny kiss – but a sign of love that could break people and built them up once again. A power that can make you crumble down, yet make you feel more alive than ever.

A magical spell.

David gripped his palm tighter.

Max didn’t want to move away, he didn’t want to step away and lose what they had now. He knew he had to do it. He knew that the reality was just around the corner, ready to snatch them and move far _far_ away from each other.

But Max will wait.

And when the sun peeked at him, sadly signaling the end of their time, Max moved away.

David slowly opened his eyes and looked up at him, the kind smile stretching over his lips, looking more alive and vivid than ever.

And Max felt that he was totally gone. But he wouldn’t change a thing.

The reality was back. It walked through the door and looked at them, softly patting the watch on its wrist, looking almost remorsefully at them.

“Do you want to help me water the south greenhouse?” David asked, stepping away and bringing his hand closer to his body.

“Only if you give me a passing grade on the last essay.”

David smirked and then passed him.

“Nope.” He said, a playful tone hanging on the last word.

Max turned to him and sighed heavily. Damn. It was still worth a try.

“Okay, let me get the watering cans.”

* * *

 

“Max, I know you did it!”

Max snickered under his nose, knowing too well the angry tone of the teacher who was marching to him through the corridor, fuming with anger so hard that everyone could almost see the dark aura surrounding him.

Yeah, the students definitely moved away, not wanting to feel the anger on their skins.

Nikki and Neil looked back at the Potions teacher. Nikki quickly clasped her mouth shut with her one hand, but Max still could hear the giggles escaping through her fingers. Neil managed to remain calm and collected, but Max could see that the corners of his mouth were twitching.

But how could they not laugh when Daniel was running to them with pink hair.

Yeah, that was worth it.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Max said, looking at the teacher and trying to make the most innocent smile he could muster.

Of course, no one believed him. No wonder. Especially when he really was the one who had done it. It wasn’t much. A simple prank put above the door to Daniel’s office.

To be fair, the teacher deserved it. He had made Max do the last potion again, even though he had done it correctly. But the color had been a little off. So yeah, Max was here for revenge.

(Their peace treaty had ended quite quickly. And even though Max was still kind of grateful, he was still himself... So yeah, he couldn’t have left this matter alone.)

“You know what I’m talking about. You’re the one who put the bomb above my door!” Daniel glared at him, hands twitching furiously next to his sides.

Max shrugged and then crossed his hands, trying not to let the smirk out.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what you are talking about.”

Nikki at this point was fully red while trying to contain her laughter. Neil coughed into his hand and then occupied himself with looking through his bag.

“Max, really, I swear that I’ll –“

“What is happening here?”

And well, of course, Max’s heart skipped a beat after hearing this voice.

Gladly he didn’t look away. But Daniel did. With the same burning anger, he turned to David and pointed an accusatory finger at Max, almost smacking him right in the nose.

“David, look what Max did to my hair!”

David stood next to them with hands on his hips and looking utterly perplexed. He glanced up at Daniel’s bright pink hair and yes, even his lips twitched in an amused grin. But he quickly cleared his throat and brushed the smile away.

“Well… they definitely have an… interesting color.” David said, prolonging a few words hesitantly.

“They are pink!”

“I can see that.” David nodded, still trying hard not to suddenly laugh right into Daniel’s face. “Listen, I know you are mad, but you shouldn’t throw accusations around –“

“But I know he did it!” Daniel hissed, still almost sticking the finger into Max’s eye.

David stole a glance at Max, but then quickly returned Daniel’s gaze.

“Do you have any proof?” David asked, sighing softly.

“I just know it.” Daniel growled, eyelids dropping down.

To be fair, Daniel wasn’t wrong. But Max had been extra careful not to accidentally leave any traces after himself. What could he say? Six years definitely taught him something.

“Okay.” The Herbology teacher murmured. “Even if that is true, you have classes in an hour and I doubt you want to parade around the school with your hair in this color.”

Daniel quickly closed his mouth shut, looking up at one pink strand which curled on his forehead. He didn’t utter any coherent words, but let out a row of weird, glued together, mumbles.

But David looked like he fully understood what the man said, because the kind smile returned to his lips.

“Yeah, yeah, right.” He said. “Come with me. I think I have something in my office that can help you.”

“Okay.” Daniel mumbled, finally letting his hand fall and not threatening Max with it.

“And you three please return to classes.” David ordered, glancing at them.

Nikki nodded, Neil finally stopped searching through his bag and Max simply didn’t answer.

Both David and Daniel walked away. At some point Daniel threw a hood over his head and David laughed at that – if his rapidly moving shoulders were any indication. It looked like Daniel wasn’t amused by it, because he glanced away, which somehow made David laugh even harder.

The three of them also started to slowly move to their next classes.

But before Max could lose David from his sight, he glanced back, hoping to catch one last glimpse of the man.

He felt like his heart could burst, when he saw David turning around too. His gaze met David’s and Max forgot how to breathe for a second.

David shook his finger softly at him, though still with an amused grin dancing on his lips. Max only shrugged back, feeling that he could explode inside.

David definitely also knew that Max did it, but Max didn’t mind. It was close to summer and he had a lot of homework to do, a lot of essays to write and a lot of tests to pass. He needed something to loosen up a little bit.

And what was better than messing with Daniel?

David shook his head and before he disappeared behind the corner, he sent Max one last, beautiful, kind smile. Then he was gone.

Max couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of his day. The feelings inside of him were growing with every passing minute, hour, day and week.

Waiting was terrible. There were some days when Max only wanted to curl on his bed and do nothing else. Days when it took all of his willpower to not run to David. Days when he had to clench his fists and endure being able to only stare from far away. Days when the reality was really harsh and he wanted to do so many things he couldn’t do.

But there were also sweet days. Days filled with David waving at him from the teachers’ table. Days filled with David smiling to him during classes. Days filled with the blissful future filling every part of Max’s body.

Waiting was hard. But Max knew it was worth it. For David it was worth it. And he was going to do it.

No matter how long it would take.

Max was going to wait for it.

**ﾟ ｡ ･ * . ☆ ━  the end  ━ ☆ . * ･ ｡ ﾟ**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! =D
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this story! I hope it brightened your day even a little bit and I hope it put a smile on your face <3!
> 
> And, of course, great thanks to my amazing friend maxvid-fan who helped me check this! You are great!
> 
> Hope to see you again soon! <3 Stay safe!

**Author's Note:**

> Yahoo!
> 
> Hope you liked what I wrote. It took quite a long time to finish xD!
> 
> Great thanks to @maxvid-fan who helped me with checking it =D!
> 
> It's dedicated to every person who every had to delete their blog or felt threatened in the fandom! Stay strong! I hope it will put a smile on your face and make you feel better! <3
> 
> Love you!


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